The Lost Chancellery Guard
by grpruett
Summary: Before the Doctor stole his Tardis, he sabotaged a group of Chancellery Guards' Tardises. However, the Chancellery Guard Trevorgitravrono didn't realize that the Doctor did more than sabotage his Tardis until after he landed in Boston, Massachusetts 60 years after the Doctor had first landed in London, England. He soon realizes how lost he was after meeting Sami and Lili.
1. The Discovery Part 1

**Authors notes:**

I do not own nor do I have a claim to Dr. Who.

When Hulu aired Dr. Who classic a few years ago, I was able to watch the available episodes of the first Doctor and the second Doctor, and some of the episodes of the third Doctor before Hulu stopped airing them. I haven't seen any episodes from the fourth Doctor to the eighth Doctor. On Amazon Prime I had started re-watching Dr. Who while starting with the ninth Doctor.

I have not read any of Dr. Who books or comic books. So there is a lot of information on the series I don't know. Such as, when the first doctor stole the Tardis and went to Earth in the 1960's, I don't know if he had landed on Earth in Gallifrey's past, present or future. For this story, I'm going with Gallifrey's present. Also I learned about Chancellery Guards being Gallifrey's policemen from looking at the Wiki fandom page.

I don't mean to upset devoted canon fans, but I have a feeling that I'm changing on how the time-lords had become time-lords—or at least I'm putting a little bit of a twist to it.

Also in my story the walls between alternate realities were never sealed as it had been stated by the Doctor a few times after the episode _Rise of the Cybermen._

* * *

**A better summary:**

Before the Doctor stole his Tardis, he sabotaged a group of Chancellery Guards' Tardises. However, the Chancellery Guard Trevorgitravrono (Trevor) didn't realize that the Doctor did more than sabotage his Tardis until after he landed in Boston, Massachusetts 60 years after the Doctor had first landed in London, England. He soon realizes how lost he was after meeting two young Boston nurses, Samantha (Sami) Nicole Stewart and Lili Nadine James.

The Discovery is in Sami's first person view.

* * *

The Discovery Part 1

It was about 9:20 P.M., on Friday, March 10th, 2023, and it was a typical evening here at Boston General Hospital. The ER was hopping as usual with people being treated for various illnesses or injuries, and of course the waiting area was maxed out with people who were waiting to be treated.

Since I had started my eight-hour shift at 2:00 P.M., I had drawn blood from several people, took vitals from several people, administered control-dose of medicine to several people, helped put on a cast on a boy's broken arm, carried lab work to and from the lab on several occasions and then—most recently—watched a man named John Dorr die.

John was a forty-two-year-old Caucasian man. He had been stabbed three times in the abdomen and—according to the paramedics who brought him in—had fallen unconscious seconds before reaching the hospital. His driver's license showed that he lived in Boston and that he was born on July 2nd, 1980. His height was 5' 8". He weighed about one hundred and seventy pounds. His eyes were hazel and his hair was light brown; although to me his hair looked closer to blond than being brown. Also his hair was cut short.

The clothes John wore were blue slacks, a blue polo shirt and black shoes. The only piece of jewelry he wore was a digital watch; however, he did have a tan line on his left ring finger where a ring used to be.

I would feel naked if I was just wearing a watch. In fact, I would feel naked if I wasn't wearing my set of jewelry, and my set of jewelry consisted of a few rings, a necklace or two, a watch, earrings and bracelets; although, as long as I was wearing my watch, I could get by without wearing a bracelet.

After Dr. Carl Anderson had declared John dead, I was told to assist Dr. Lucy Newton as he talked with the police.

Dr. Newton was treating a tall fourteen-year-old girl named Luna in Treatment Room Two, and Luna was running a high fever.

Dr. Newton was tall too—about 5' 9", but Luna, at fourteen, was about 5' 10".

I, on the other hand, was not tall. While barefooted, I was 5' 4", and more often than I like, I was the shortest person in the room.

In my head, I knew that 5' 4" was actually very close to the average height for a young American woman; however, my adopted mom was 5' 10" and her two sisters were both 5' 9". My cousins—adopted cousins anyway—were 5' 9" or taller so I had always felt like the runt in the family, which was why, outside this hospital, I wore three-inch heels.

Anyway, Dr. Newton suspected that Luna had the latest strand of the flu virus, which was of course treatable. To confirm if Luna did in fact have the flu, Dr. Newton took Luna's blood, a throat culture and a urine sample. I was then off to the lab again with those samples.

Going to and from the lab didn't take long and after returning to the ER, I assisted Dr. Charles Cole as he treated Jacob Reed. Mr. Reed was bitten by a dog and the dog took a good bite from his leg.

Jacob Reed was the last patient I assisted with before my shift ended. I then went to trade my hospital scrubs for my blue jeans, my black long-sleeve pullover shirt and my three-inch high-heeled mid-calf brown leather boots with straps and buckles.

Lili James, Toni Carlson, Terri Neuner and Marci Raye (my four fellow nurses who worked the same shift I did) were changing their clothes as I was changing mine. In fact, all four of them were trading their hospital scrubs for blue jeans and a nice blouse. Lili, Toni and Terri each were changing out of their work shoes for their three-inch high-heeled boots while Marci was putting on a nice pair of flats.

Lili was also my roommate and a good friend and a Valentine baby. Last Valentine she turned twenty-seven. She stood about 5' 7" while barefooted. She had hazel eyes and long blondish brown hair that was currently in a French braid.

Toni had turned thirty-years old three days ago on March 7th. She stood about 5' 7" while barefooted as well. She had blue eyes and auburn hair that barely touched her shoulders.

Terri and Marci were in their late twenties or early thirties. I didn't know their true age, and they respectively stood 5' 6" and 5' 10" while barefooted. They each had blonde hair; however, Terri's hair was long and in a ponytail while Marci's hair was recently cut short. Also Terri's eyes were green while Marci's eyes were hazel.

I was twenty-five years old, and I was born on August 6th, 1997. My long dark brown hair was currently in a ponytail and my eyes were brown.

As the five of us were changing clothes, we discussed the books that we each read or were currently reading.

Once the five of us were dressed in our everyday clothes and my long dark brown hair was out of its ponytailer and brushed out, we grabbed our coats and our purses and moved towards our respected vehicles.

My light brown purse and Lili's dark brown purse had long straps and we both carried our purses with the straps crossing our backs and chests from our left shoulders to our right hips; although, Lili would sometimes carry her purse from her right shoulder to her left hip.

Lili and I were, more often than not, going to the same place—and I had no vehicle—so I rode with Lili in her red Prius.

Being that it was Friday night, Lili and I were on our way to _McCawley's Pub_—a moderate size Irish bar that played karaoke on the weekends.

During my and Lili's walk to her Prius, our conversation was about the groceries that we needed when one of us would go to the store next. However, before we could reach the Prius, we crossed paths with Jimmy Dolan and Justin Waterman—two of Boston's very talented paramedics.

Jimmy was about 5' 10" and was Caucasian. He had short red hair, hazel eyes and was very good looking.

Justin was about 5' 9" and was Caucasian. He had brown eyes and short black hair. He too was good looking, but married to a woman named Stacie.

Anyway, I got to know Justin soon after I was hired on as a nurse at the hospital, and I was hired on July 1st, 2022. July 1st, 2022 was also the day I had met Lili. I then moved in with Lili seven days later on July 8th. She had been looking for a roommate to help with the rent and the utility bills and I needed a place to live, so it worked out great.

Anyway, I met Jimmy after he had moved back to Boston last September—Boston was his hometown and he had been a Chicago paramedic for nearly two years.

From the day I met Jimmy to now, Jimmy had asked me out four times; however, I had it on good authority that Jimmy would date more than one woman at a time and I wasn't going to be another conquest for him—no matter how good looking and irresistible he was.

"Sami. Lili," Jimmy called when he saw us. Either _Sami _or_ Sam _was what everyone would call me, except my actual name was Samantha Nicole Stewart. Although, in grade school, I knew four boys named Samuel who went by _Sam_, and because of them, I actually acquired the preference to be called _Sami_ or _Samantha_ over _Sam_. So when I would introduce myself, I would normally introduce myself as _Sami_; however, I wouldn't make a big deal out of it if someone would call me _Sam_. "I'm glad I saw you two." I politely grinned and prepared to be asked out for the fifth time. "The _New Moon's_ grand opening is going on as we speak and the bar will be open until three. Justin and I have to return our rig and then he and I are going to meet up with his wife at _New Moon_. Would you two care to join us? There's a live band tonight."

"Sami, what do you say? Should we check out _New Moon_ instead?" Lili asked.

"Sure," I replied. "It sounds like fun."

"Then Justin and I will see you lovely ladies at _New Moon_ very soon," Jimmy told us and staring more at me.

I couldn't help the amused grin that came across my face as I told Jimmy and Justin, "I'll see you guys there."

As Jimmy and Justin continued towards their ambulance, Lili and I continued towards her Prius.

_New Moon _was four miles from the hospital and one block past _Star's Surplus_—a twenty-four-hour warehouse store that sold electronic equipment and hardware store items.

As we approached _Star's Surplus_ and _Piggly Barbeque_ (the restaurant that shared the lot with _Star's Surplus_), Lili lowered the volume of her music—the latest songs in Pop music—and announced that we were going to stop at _Star's_ first before going to _New Moon._

"What do you need from _Star's_?" I quickly asked.

"A new handle and float for our toilet," Lili informed.

"Mr. Wicker is supposed to be fixing that," I replied.

"Mr. Wicker had five days to fix the toilet," Lili began as she prepared to turn into the store's parking lot. "He had his chance, and now I'm going to take care of it."

"Okay," I replied. "But if you make matters worse…"

"I know how to change a handle and a float," Lili quickly replied. "I changed them on my parents' toilet."

"Okay," I again replied.

The parking lot that _Star's Surplus _and_ Piggly Barbeque _shared was located south from the street, but north of the two establishments, and within a short time, Lili parked her Prius next to a long camper trailer. The camper trailer was parked on the northeast side of the parking lot (the side that sat in front of _Star's Surplus_)and it was taking up two spaces. The vehicle to pull the trailer wasn't there.

My and Lili's conversation was casual as we walked from the Prius to the aisle that sold parts for the toilet, and the conversation remained casual as Lili carried her selected parts to the self-check-out lane.

After Lili paid for her purchase, we made our way back to the Prius while walking towards the park cars behind another customer by about six steps.

The customer in front of us was about 6' 0". I couldn't see his face, so I couldn't estimate how old he was. However, he did have dark brown hair and was dressed in black trousers, a beige tunic, a black cloak that had a collar and black boots. Also he was carrying enough electronic components to build a radio or other devices from scratch.

As Lili and I were approaching the Prius, the man continued towards the camper.

I watched the man as he opened the door to his camper, and just as he was climbing in, I saw that he had dropped a part of his purchase on the parking lot. However, the man didn't notice and disappeared into his camper. Lili and I were just a few steps from the Prius when I saw the door of the camper closing.

"I'll be back in a moment," I told Lili as I watched the door to the camper stop short from closing all the way.

"Where are you going?" Lili quickly asked as I was walking towards the camper.

"That man dropped a part of what he had bought from the store," I replied. "I would hate for him to lose his purchases."

I hurried to the items that were lying just outside the camper, and then saw another small item within the doorway of the camper that was keeping the door slightly ajar.

After picking up the items that were on the lot, I knocked hard on his door. After waiting a few seconds and not getting a response, I knocked again. When I still didn't get an answer, I pulled opened the door.

I was about to call out to the man, but stopped when I saw that the inside was extremely bigger than the outside of the camper, and the inside looked like a bridge to a Hollywood's spaceship.

"What the hell?" I uttered loud enough for Lili to hear.

"What's wrong?" Lili quickly asked.

"I could tell you, but you will never believe me," I told Lili as I held the door open and stared inside. "So you should come over and see for yourself."

I continued to hold the door open and stare inside, but I knew Lili was coming up behind me as I could hear her footsteps approaching.

"I would believe that there are dead bodies in there or possibly sex slaves or even illegal Mexicans," Lili commented before being close enough to see in.

"Would you believe that there's a full scale bridge of a nice size starship inside?" I questioned.

"That's not pos..." Lili was only able to say before stepping to where she could see inside. Lili didn't even finish saying the word 'possible' as she continued with, "What the hell?"

"I told you, you wouldn't believe me," I replied.

Lili went passed me and climbed into the camper. I climbed in after Lili did, but before I allowed the door to close behind me, I picked up the item that was keeping the door ajar.

After allowing the door to completely close, I followed Lili to the center of the room, which was about ten of my normal-stride-footsteps from the door.

"We are inside a camper," Lili pointed out as she stood within touching distance to a control console. "Outside, the camper is only taking up two parking spaces, but inside, the camper looks like it's taking up... pff, a few rows of five parking spaces. How is this possible?"

"I remember a 'Star Trek: Next Generation' episode that had a space pod with a bigger inside than outside..."

"Sami," Lili uttered before I could finish my thought. "That's science fiction, and I know that you are a science fiction nerd—" Lili spread her arms out and accidently hit a button as she continued to say, "—but this is science fact. Oops."

The sound of dead bolts latching at the door echoed through the room while Lili was speaking; although Lili was focusing more on the button that she accidently pressed than the door.

Before the echo of the dead bolts latching could completely fade, the sound of beeping—as if a bomb was counting down—began.

My focus had been more on the door, but when I heard the beeping sound, I faced Lili and demanded to know, "What did you do?"

Lili continued to focus on the control console as she said, "If I knew what I did, I could undo it."

"You know, the only time I hear beeping sounds like that is when the main character is seconds away from being blown up," I quickly told her. "So figure out what you did and undo it."

"Sami, I'm starting to believe that you watch too much TV," Lili retorted.

"Just figure out how to undo what you did before something bad happens, and I'll attempt to find that guy who came in before us," I said before gazing the room.

I saw an opening in a wall that could have been the beginning section to a corridor. So I went to investigate if it was in fact a corridor. However, when I got close enough, I saw that the opening in the wall wasn't a corridor, but the beginning to a spiral stairwell that went up one level and down to another level.

I heard approaching footsteps on the stairs, and as I was a few feet from the stairs, the man came off the stairs and looked directly into my eyes.

"Who are you and how did you get in here?" the man demanded to know.

Since I could now see the man's face, I estimated that he was in his late twenties or early thirties. He had a beard that was neatly trimmed and he was very good looking.

"My name is Sami," I quickly told him before I held up the items that I had retrieved for him. "You dropped these outside, and I came inside to return them to you."

"That doesn't answer how you got inside," the man said before moving past me.

"I got inside by opening the fricken door," I brazenly replied.

As I followed the man, the man demanded, "Step back from the controls." The man was talking to Lili and Lili raised her hands in a surrendering manner and took a step back. "And how did you and Sami get through a locked door?"

"Your door wasn't locked... or even shut as far as that matters," I quickly told him. The man was a couple of steps away from the controls and he glanced back at me as he was taking his final two steps. "One of the items you dropped was dropped in the doorway that left your door ajar."

"Yes, well, you shouldn't have entered," the man replied before gazing over the controls. "And you activated the jump."

"What does 'activating the jump' mean?" Lili quickly asked.

"If my ship was working properly, we will be going into the past by about sixty years within seconds from now, but since my ship isn't working properly, we are going into the time-stream and then reemerge from the time-stream moments after we had entered it. So hold onto something. This is going to be a rough ride."

The man had barely said what he did before the bucking and the whooshing sound began. The three of us quickly grabbed onto something.

The bucking and the whooshing sound lasted for several seconds before the control console began to smoke and then erupted into flames.

The man groaned slightly before gesturing towards the fire and saying, "That was exactly what I was scared of."

Within seconds after the fire began an automatic fire system from the ceiling sprayed a steam like substance—possibly carbon dioxide or a dry chemical—on the controls. As the fire was ending, so were the bucking and the whooshing sound.

"What in hell just happened?" Lili quickly demanded as she let go of what she was holding onto.

"We entered the time-stream only to get booted out again seconds later," the man replied.

"So your camper is a time ship?" I asked.

"Camper?" the man questioned in a curious tone as he went to examine the damage that the fire had caused.

"Yes, camper," I replied. "The outside—which by the way is very much smaller than the inside—is a camper."

"Okay, I'm not from around here, so I'm not familiar with the word _camper_," the man replied as he pulled off an access panel to his control console. "Nor was I familiar with what shape my ship had taken when I had arrived here."

"Your ship can take on different shapes?" I quickly asked.

"I have a better questioned," Lili uttered before the man could answer my question. "You arrived here from where?"

"Trust me, you have never heard of the place I'm from," the man replied. "And, Sami, yes. My ship examines its surroundings of the landing site and camouflages itself appropriately, and half of the time, I hadn't even heard of the shape that it takes."

"You're not from this planet, are you?" Lili quickly asked.

"I'm not," the man simply replied as he examined the burnt wires.

"Are you an advance scout?" Lili quickly asked.

"I am no scout, advanced or otherwise," the man replied before standing. "And all of these wires are ruined. I'll be here for days fixing my controls."

"If you are not an advance scout then why are you here?" Lili quickly asked.

"My mission doesn't concern you, Sami or this planet," the man simply replied.

"I'll be the judge of that, and if you don't tell me, your controls catching on fire will be the least of your concerns," Lili quickly told him.

The man looked deeply into Lili's eyes, and after a moment of not answering, he finally sighed and said, "Okay, fine. If you must know, I am a Chancellery Guard. I am from the planet Gallifrey, and I'm here to apprehend a thief who had stolen a Tardis."

"What's a Tardis?" Lili asked as I was forming the words to ask the same question.

The man gestured to encompass our surroundings as he said, "This is a Tardis, and Tardis is an acronym for Time And Relative Dimension In Space. Anyway, two days ago... well two days ago for me, anyway. For the galaxy, it had been sixty years ago. Anyway, I'm going to speak in reference relative to my time. So, two days ago, a Gallifreyan—calling himself the Doctor—had either sabotage a group of Chancellery Guard's Tardises or had someone to sabotage them for him. He then snuck into a Tardis repair shop and stole a type-40 Tardis that was scheduled for repairs.

"I was the first guard to get my ship in operation—or so I thought. I had chased the Doctor to this planet, but my instruments were severely out of calibration, so I had landed on this planet sixty years past my target date and on the wrong side of the world. I recalibrated my instruments after setting down and then attempted to once again catch up with the Doctor. But as you saw moments ago, the only thing that happened was that I entered the time-stream, my console heated up as if it was about to catch fire and then I was returned to my starting point. I reexamined my systems to see what I needed, and then I went and purchased what I needed. Then you two showed up and caused more damage to my ship."

"I'm sorry for that," Lili replied. "I sometimes wave my hands when I talk, and I was standing to close to the buttons when I was talking to Sami. Anyway, I'm Lili. And what is your name?"

The Chancellery Guard amusingly grinned before saying, "It's Trevorgitravrono."

"Yeah, I'm going to call you Trevor," Lili replied.

"I'm okay with that," Trevor replied with a grin. "Anyway, I had planned to get a few hours of rest and then start on my repairs. So thank you for bringing me what I had dropped, but I'm going to ask you two to leave now."

"Before we leave, can you explain why the inside of your ship is huge and the outside is not?" Lili asked.

Trevor took the time to explain dimensionally transcendental to us, and as Lili and I were walking towards the exit, I stopped in my tracks when a thought occurred to me.

"Wait a minute. Hold on," I requested and facing Trevor. "Trevor, you are not from this world, so how did you pay for your purchase?"

"Some Tardises are equipped with the ability to create currency of the region and my Tardis is one of them," Trevor replied.

"Okay, well, you should be aware that creating currency as you did, is called counterfeiting and counterfeiting is a crime," I told Trevor. "Not that I'm going to report you. I just thought you should be aware of that fact."

"Yes, counterfeiting is a crime in every culture, and I do try to avoid committing that crime, but certain circumstances—like buying items I need to repair my Tardis—require exceptions."

I thought for a moment before nodding and saying, "Yes. I agree that certain circumstances require exceptions. Anyway, take care."

"Take care," Trevor echoed.

Lili and I continued to the exit, and once outside, we noticed that the Tardis was no longer parked on the northeast side of the parking lot as it was earlier; it was now on the northwest side of the parking lot (the side that sat in front of _Piggly Barbeque_). However, it was still taking up two parking spaces.

After getting our bearings of where we were, Lili and I took off towards the northeast side of the parking lot; however, within seconds, we learned that her Prius wasn't there.

"Holy shit," Lili uttered. "Someone stole my car."

Lili went into her purse as I said, "We better call the cops."

"I'm planning on it," Lili replied as she pulled out her smartphone.

As Lili was about to place her call, she let out, "Huh?"

"What?" I asked.

"I have no service," Lili replied, I went into my purse and pulled out my smartphone. "Oh well, I can still call 9-1-1 without service, and I'll worry about why I don't have service later."

As I was noticing that I too had no service, Lili dialed 9-1-1.

Lili and I both had the same wireless provider, so they must be having an issue on their end.

I dropped my smartphone back into my purse while Lili was reporting her stolen car.

Once Lili was done making her 9-1-1 call and her phone was back in her purse, we—while discussing our transportation options and the likelihood of one of us buying another car—waited for about ten minutes for the two police cruisers that pulled up.

While working at the hospital, Lili and I both knew a few police officers, but Lili and I didn't know the two male officers who were walking up to us.

One of the officers was a Caucasian who stood about 5' 10" and the other officer was African American who stood about 5' 11".

As they walked up to us, the African American asked, "Which one of you is Lili James?"

I glanced at the officers' nametags while Lili acknowledged who she was.

The African American—Officer Moore—continued to say, "I understand that you are reporting a stolen car."

"That is correct," Lili replied. "My friend Sami and I went into the store and when we came out, my car was gone, and I parked it right here."

"Had you searched the parking lot just in case you have forgotten where you had parked?" the Caucasian officer—Officer Brennon—asked.

"No, but I know for a fact that I had parked within this area," Lili replied while making a hand gesture that encompassed the few parking spaces around us.

"What kind of car do you own?" Officer Moore asked while taking out his pocket-notebook from his shirt-breast pocket.

"I own a 2015 red Prius," Lili replied.

Officer Moore made a notation in his notebook before telling Lili, "Okay, but before I fill out the stolen car report on your red Prius, I would like to search the lot at least once. What is your license plate number?"

"I was scared that you were going to asked me that?" Lili replied.

"Does that mean you don't know?" Officer Moore asked.

"I don't; sorry," Lili replied.

"That's fine," Officer Moore replied. "May I see your driver's license?"

"Sure," Lili replied before going into her purse.

After Lili pulled out her wallet, she pulled out her driver's license and handed it to Officer Moore.

Officer Moore got on his radio and read off Lili's driver's license information. He then requested information on any vehicles that she owned.

Within a short time, a woman's voice said what car Lili had owned—which of course was a Prius—and the license plate number.

"Copy, out," Officer Moore said to the woman over the radio before making another notation in his notebook.

We then searched the lot and when Officer Moore and Officer Brennon were satisfied that Lili's Prius wasn't on the lot, Officer Moore officially declared Lili's Prius as being stolen.

Officer Moore wanted us—well, he wanted Lili, anyway—to go to the police station and fill out a police report.

Lili agreed and I volunteered to go as well for moral support and to keep her company. Lili and I then got into Officer Moore's cruiser.

Our trip to the police station was done in silence and after entering the police station, I waited in the reception area in silence as Lili continued to Officer Moore's desk.

I gazed over the reception area and read every sign and poster that was hanging on the walls. I also looked at everyone who was in the room or who had walked through the room.

After waiting for about fifteen minutes, Lili and Officer Moore stepped up to me.

"It's done," Lili told me. "Officer Moore is going to take us home."

"Okay," I replied while standing. "I'm ready."

The three of us were again quiet as we returned to Officer Moore's cruiser and we remained quiet during the ride to my and Lili's four-story apartment complex.


	2. The Discovery Part 2

The Discovery Part 2

My and Lili's apartment was apartment 310 on the third floor and after Officer Moore dropped us off, Lili and I went directly to our apartment.

Lili was the one to use her key to unlock the door, and as we were walking in, a woman who favored Lili in many ways and wearing flannel pajamas, stood up from the couch and faced us. Although her nose was red as if she had a cold and that she had been blowing it a lot.

"Back so soon from your date," the woman said in a voice that told me that she was battling a cold or the flu. "How did it go?"

"Who are you and how did you get in here?" Lili demanded to know, which reminded me when Trevor had asked me those same two questions.

"What do you mean who am I?" the woman asked.

"That wasn't a difficult question," Lili told the woman.

"I'm Laila, your sister," the woman claimed in a tone as if to also say, "Duh."

Lili appeared angry as she pursed her lips for a moment. "You're not..." Lili stopped talking when her attention was drawn to a tiger-striped cat that entered the room from Lili's bedroom. "Bells?"

Laila—if that was in fact her name—glanced between the cat and Lili before shooting Lili a curious look and demanding to know, "What in hell is going on with you, Lili? First, you act as if you don't know me and now you're confusing Tigger for Bells. Granted, Bells and Tigger have the same markings, but you know better."

Lili stepped closer to Laila while saying, "If someone sent you here to pretend to be my sister then this is a cruel and sick joke."

"Lili, what is wrong with you?" Laila asked. The cat jumped up onto the loveseat and laid down. "No one sent me here. I am your sister."

"My sister Laila died when we were ten," Lili growled through clenched teeth.

"Died? What in hell are you talking about?" Laila demanded to know.

"Seventeen years ago on June 11th, my sister ran out into the street while chasing after Bells," Lili began with tears streaming down her cheeks. "At the moment Laila had picked up Bells from the street, a driver to a van slammed onto his brakes and skidded into Laila fast enough to crush Bells and to propel Laila several feet into the air. Her head was crushed by the force of her head hitting the pavement."

"Lili, that never happened," Laila quickly replied.

"Oh my God," I uttered loudly as the thought occurred to me. Lili and Laila looked curiously at me. "Lili, your Prius is exactly where you had parked it. It was never stolen."

"Wait, your Prius was stolen?" Laila quickly asked.

"Yes," Lili replied.

"No," I quickly countered. "Lili, we didn't enter any time-stream when we were aboard the Tardis. We shifted to a reality where your sister didn't die seventeen years ago."

"What are you talking about?" Lili and Laila both asked in cadence.

"And who are you?" Laila continued.

"I'm Sami, Laila, and I want you to call your sister's phone," I replied.

"Why do you want me to call Lili's phone?" Laila asked while glancing at Lili.

"Humor me for a moment, and put your phone on speaker," I requested.

Laila sighed for a moment before saying, "Hold on. My phone is charging in the kitchen."

When Laila walked away, Lili asked me, "What do you mean that we shifted reality?"

"Have you ever heard of the multiverse theory?" I quickly asked.

"No," Lili replied. "What is it?"

"It's a theory that suggests that there are multiple realities of Earths existing at the same time and at the same place, but on their own planes of existence," I replied.

"You need to give me a better definition," Lili told me.

Before I could respond, my attention and Lili's attention were drawn to Laila as she returned with her smartphone.

"Okay, I'm dialing," Laila announced when Lili and I looked at her.

"Put it on speaker," I told her.

"Going on speaker," Laila replied while pressing the button to do so.

The phone rang three times before a woman who sounded exactly like Lili answered the phone with, "Laila, this had better be important. As you know, I'm on a date."

"Wait," Laila uttered before gesturing appropriately. "If you are out on your date, then who in hell are you?"

"I am Lili James, and this is my apartment," she replied.

"Lili, this isn't our apartment," I told her.

"Laila, what's going on?" Lili-two (the Lili of this reality) demanded to know over the phone.

"I don't know yet," Laila told her sister. "I'll call you back."

"Wait. Don't hang..." Lili-two was only able to get out before Laila ended the call.

"Who in hell are you and why do you look like my sister?" Laila demanded to know from Lili.

"I am Lili James," Lili (the Lili from my reality) said again.

"My sister—Lili James—is out on a date," Laila replied through clench teeth.

"Time out," I uttered while getting between them and making the time out hand gesture. When I had their attention, I continued to say, "Laila, yes, your sister Lili James is out on her date." I gestured towards Lili. "But she is also Lili James, but she and I are not from this reality."

"I don't understand," Laila told me.

"Okay, I'll try to explain it," I said and slightly hesitated to come up with a better explanation for the multiverse theory. "There is a theory that suggests that for every choice that a person is presented with, each of those choices are chosen, but on different planes of realities." I gestured towards my boots as I continued to say, "For example, I had bought these boots about three weeks ago. But before buying these boots I couldn't decide between this pair and another pair. Obviously I had chosen this pair, but in another reality, I—or more precisely, my counterpart of that alternate reality—had bought the other pair of boots."

"I'm still not clearly grasping the concept of alternate realities," Laila replied.

I thought for a moment before saying, "Okay, um, I'm sure that you have stepped in-between two mirrors before that were facing each other with a slight angle, and I want you to imagine what you would see when you look into one of those mirrors."

"Okay, I'll imagine it," Laila replied.

"You are only one person standing in-between two mirrors, but you would see your mirror image too many times to count. Now pretend that each one of those images of you is an existence separate of your own that mimics your life up to the point when you had looked into the mirror; however, once you step away from that mirror, you will do your own thing and each of your counterparts... or doppelgangers will do her own thing as well. Such as one of your doppelgangers might be off to the airport, and another one might be off to a friend's house. And another one might even went out and had a few drinks. The thoughts of what your doppelgangers are doing right now in their respective realities are endless. In fact, one might be a master chef while another one might not know how to cook."

"Okay, okay. I believe I got the idea," Laila replied. "And if I'm thinking correctly, Sami, then there should be a doppelganger of you somewhere in this reality as well."

"There should be, unless my doppelganger was never born or she had died within the past twenty-five years and... and seven months," I replied.

"Like my doppelganger did in your world," Laila said while looking at Lili.

"Yes," I said in a small voice and glancing at Lili.

Lili didn't appear happy about her sister's death being mentioned.

"Lili, in this existence... or reality, Bells had never run out into the street," Laila told Lilli and slipping her phone into her pajama pocket. "How come she did in your reality?"

"Dad and Uncle Frank were moving furniture and had left the front door open and Bells loose to get outside," Lili replied.

"I don't know anyone named Frank," Laila informed. "Who is he?"

"Uncle Frank is dad's baby brother," Lili informed.

"How many brothers… and sisters does dad have in your reality?" Laila asked.

"Dad has only two siblings—Uncle Edward and Uncle Frank," Lili replied.

"In this reality, dad's only sibling is Uncle Edward," Laila informed.

"Sami, between the three of us, you seemed to be the knowledgeable one on the subject," Lili began as she faced me. "Could my Uncle Frank be the blame for my sister's death?"

"Lili, life is nothing more than chain of events that is governed by people's decisions, and your sister died because she decided to chase your cat into the street," I replied. "However, your Uncle Frank could have indirectly influenced events that resulted in your cat running into the street... or it could have been a combination of events that had caused Bells to run out into the street. So your Uncle Frank's presence alone might not be enough to have influenced certain events."

"Okay, okay. I got the idea," Lili replied. "No one person or one thing is really to blame for my sister's death."

"Lili, I think I know the answer to this, but were you and your sister twins?" I asked.

Lili and Laila grinned as Lili replied, "We were fraternal twins." Lili then looked at Laila. "Laila—the Laila from my reality—was also my best friend and there hasn't been a day gone by that I hadn't missed her."

"I guarantee that your sister would feel the same as you do if your two's situation was reversed," Laila replied.

Lili nodded with an appreciative grin before saying, "I know you're not my sister, but I would still like you to tell me about yourself."

"Lili, I'm not sure if we have time for that," I informed.

"Why wouldn't we have time?" Lili quickly asked.

"We need to talk with Trevor and tell him what happen to us," I replied.

"Trevor has to repair the Tardis before he can go anywhere," Lili pointed out. "And earlier, he stated that he was going to get some sleep before starting the repairs. So we have at least a couple of hours to spare before we need to go see him."

"Okay," I skeptically replied.

"Who's Trevor and what's a Tardis?" Laila asked. She then gestured towards the seating options in the living room, which was a couch and a loveseat. "And you can tell me while seated."

Lili and I nodded with a grin before moving towards the couch and loveseat.

Lili and I placed our purses on the coffee table and then sat down on the couch. Lili went to the Loveseat, but before sitting down she picked up Tigger. Once Laila was seated in the Loveseat with Tigger on her lap, Tigger began to purr loudly and sounding like a small engine.

As Laila petted Tigger, Lili and I told her about Trevor, the Tardis and our unintentional ride within the time-stream. Although now I had the feeling that the stream we entered was not the time-stream, but the stream that crossed over into other realities.

My presence and Lili's presence—mostly Lili's presence—had allowed Laila to accept what Lili and I had said about Trevor and the Tardis as fact without doubts, and after Lili and I said all we could about Trevor and the Tardis, Laila began telling us her life story.

Lili was a talker when someone would get her started and I now see that Laila was also a talker.

Laila was telling us a lot about her life, and during her talk, I learned that ten months ago, Lili-two and Laila had gotten their apartment with the help of their maternal grandma, which was the same way Lili had gotten her apartment ten months ago. Although in my reality, Lili didn't have a roommate until I moved in.

After Laila had been talking for about thirty minutes, the sound of someone unlocking the apartment door was heard.

As we looked, the door opened and Lili-two and a man who had dark hair and stood about 5' 8" hurried in.

Lili-two was wearing blue jeans, a blouse, her unfastened coat and her three-inch high-heeled black boots that made her 5' 10" instead of her actual height of 5' 7". She didn't have a purse, but she did have a small handbag, and she simply held it in her left hand.

Lili-two's date was wearing blue jeans, a nice shirt, his unfastened coat and dark gray tennis shoes.

"Laila," Lili-two quickly called out as she was gazing in Laila's direction. Tigger was still on Laila's lap and purring.

"Lili," Laila answered, which made Lili-two to look directly at her without glancing at Lili or me. Although, I stared at Lili-two's date as he seemed familiar to me; however, I couldn't place him.

"Are you okay?" Lili-two demanded to know as she and the man hurried closer.

"I'm fine," Laila replied.

"Okay, well, you weren't..." When Lili-two looked towards Lili she continued weakly, "answering your phone." She then demanded to know from Lili. "Who are you and why do you look like me?"

"Lili, my name is also Lili James and I am your doppelganger from another reality," Lili informed.

"You're my what? And you are from where?" Lili-two quickly questioned in a baffled tone.

Lili and I explained the multiverse, Trevor and the Tardis to Lili-two and to her date as best as we could.

Like with Laila, Lili-two accepted the fact that Lili and I were from another Earth and that we were here by accident.

After Lili-two became at ease around Lili and me, she introduced us to her date—Joshua (Josh) Jones—to us.

Lili didn't know Josh from our reality and stated to that fact; however, Josh looked very familiar to me, but I couldn't think of where I had seen him before.

Once Josh was introduced to Lili and me, I introduced myself to Lili-two and to Josh.

After the introductions were over, Lili-two placed her handbag on the coffee table and sat on the loveseat next to Laila. And although there was another space on the couch to sit down on, Josh grabbed a chair from the kitchen to sit on.

Once we were comfortable in the living room, we began comparing this reality's historical events to my reality's historical events.

During our comparison, we learned that every current global event that we each had knowledge of and every historical event that we each had knowledge of were the same in both realities. In fact, the only differences we could precisely pinpoint were among our two small groups.

Lili-two wasn't a nurse in this reality; she and Laila were veterinarians and they work for the Boston Humane Society. Humane Society was also where Lili-two and Josh met. Josh worked in the Human Resource Department for the Humane Society.

Anyway, during our comparison, I would glance at Josh more often than I should while trying to figure out where I knew him.

After about the twentieth time of me glancing at Josh, Josh finally asked me, "Sami, I bother you, don't I?"

"No; you don't bother me," I quickly replied. "It's just that, I'm fairly certain that I have met your doppelganger in my reality, but I can't remember when or where."

"Had you met him recently?" Josh asked.

I thought for a moment before shrugging and saying, "I can't remember if it was recent or several years ago."

"Perhaps I could help you to remember," Josh told me.

"And how will you do that?" I asked.

"My doppelganger and I might have lived similar lives," Josh began. "So if I tell you a little bit about myself, then maybe that will help to jog your memory."

"Okay," I skeptically replied.

Josh began by telling me about his childhood home. And of course the others were present and listening; although, at some point—I didn't noticed when—Tigger had moved from Laila's lap and onto Lili-two's lap.

As Lili-two petted Tigger—which was again purring loudly and sounding like a small engine—Josh briefly described his years in grade school. He then moved onto the house that his family had moved to after he had turned fourteen and that was all I needed to hear to remember him by.

Before Josh could continue, I interrupted him by saying, "I know where I've seen your doppelganger."

"Where?" Josh asked with a slight grin. He was pleased with himself for helping me to remember.

I took a breath before saying, "I was nine when I first saw your doppelganger, so about sixteen years ago, your doppelganger and his parents had moved in about five houses down from me and my parents—which by the way, you and your doppelganger lived at the same address. Anyway, during the summer time, your doppelganger used to go around the neighborhood with his lawnmower and cut people's grass."

Josh grinned before saying, "I did that too. Anyway, did my doppelganger cut your grass?"

"He did when my dad couldn't find the time to cut it himself," I replied. I then told him where I used to live.

Josh thought for a second before shaking his head and asking, "What are your parents' names?"

"They are actually my adopted parents, but their names are Benjamin and Mary Stewart."

"Yes, I remember them," Josh replied. "However, they—or their doppelgangers, anyway—didn't adopt your doppelganger in this reality. In fact, they adopted an Asian boy."

"I wonder if my doppelganger is alive in this reality," I began. "And if so, I wonder if her biological parents kept her."

"Being that your doppelganger's name is most likely different in this reality, I doubt you will be able to find her even if she is alive," Laila replied.

"You could always do a genetic test on or or both and see if anyone matches you," Josh suggested. "And who knows, maybe your doppelganger is on there."

"Hopefully Trevor can take us back to our reality," Lili told Josh. "So Sami and I won't be here long enough for her to do anything like that."

"In fact, Lili... Lili I came here with," I began. "We might need to get back to the Tardis now and tell Trevor what's going on before he attempts to leave without us."

"He still has to repair his ship and most likely he is still sleeping," Lili told me.

"And unaware of our situation," I added. "I don't want us to dilly-dally too long and get stranded where we don't belong."

"Lili," Laila began before pointing to Lili from my reality. "I mean you. If you would like to put Sami's mind at ease, you two could go talk with Trever and then come back. And we need to come up with a better way to verbally identify you two."

"Lili, since this is your reality, you shouldn't have to go by a different name," Lili told Lili-two. "So, until I can get back to my own reality, I'll go by Nadine."

"Why Nadine?" Josh asked.

"Nadine is my… and her middle name," Lili-two was the one to answer; although for now on, Lili was Nadine and Lili-two was simply Lili.

Nadine gave a quick nod and a grin to what Lili had said, before saying, "Anyway, Trevor's Tardis is on _Star's Surplus's_ parking lot. So Sami and I will need a ride."

"I can give you a ride," Lili said.

"Actually, Lili, you shouldn't be the one to drive us," I told her.

"Why not?" Lili asked.

"Your car was reported stolen after we left the Tardis," I informed.

"Ooh, that's right," Nadine added. "I'm sorry for doing that to you. But I thought that I was still in my own reality and my car had been stolen when I reported your car stolen."

"Super," Lili sarcastically said. "I'll call the police and tell them... well, I'll come up with something to tell them."

"My Yukon is park outside," Josh informed. "Nadine, I can take you and Sami to the Tardis."

"I'll go with you three," Lili announced as she continued to pet Tigger. "I would like to see the Tardis."

"Ditto," Laila uttered. "I want to see the Tardis too."

"Are you up to going?" Lili asked Laila.

"The worst part of my cold is over," Laila began. "I'll be fine. So give me a moment to change into actual clothes and we can go."

"Alright," Nadine and Lili both said.

Laila got up and rushed away.

As Lili continued to pet Tigger, Nadine glanced at Tigger before commenting, "Lili, I can tell that you really love cats."

"I love cats and dogs," Lili replied. "You don't?"

"When my sister and Bells were killed by that van so was my fondness for cats and dogs," Nadine replied.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Lili genuinely replied. "I can't imagine a life without a cat or a dog in my life... well, not before I met you anyway."

Nadine pursed her lips before requesting, "Would you mind if I hold Tigger? Perhaps I could resurrect my fondness for cats."

"I'm good with you holding him," Lili said with a grin before standing up with Tigger in her arms. She then took the few steps over to Nadine and handed Tigger to her.

As Nadine cradled Tigger in her arms and began petting him, she told him, "You certainly look like Bells to me."

Tigger meowed as if she was slightly confused by Nadine holding him.

"Laila and I chose Tigger because he looks like Bells," Lili informed. "We also got Tigger when he was only a kitten from Darling Young, and Bells is actually Tigger's great aunt."

Nadine grinned before asking, "So did you and Laila owned Bells for a long time?"

"We had owned Bells for about twelve years," Lili began as Tigger calmed down and began to purr. "Bells then became deaf and blind and developed cancer. So we ended up putting her to sleep."

An expression of sadness came across Nadine's face just before she pressed her face against Tigger's side. Tigger responded by purring louder.

Everyone—except for Tigger—turned quiet, and within a short time, the quiet was broken when Laila rejoined us in the living room while wearing blue jeans, a pullover sweater, her unfastened coat and her three-inch high-heeled brown boots that made her 5' 10" instead of her actual height of 5' 7".

"I'm ready," Laila announced as she walked in.

"Then we should go," Nadine said before putting Tigger down on the floor and standing up.

Tigger rubbed against Nadine's leg.

Nadine and I grabbed our purses from the coffee table as Lili grabbed her handbag.

Laila stepped over and grabbed her purse from the kitchen table.

As the five of us made our way to the door, we were careful not to step on Tigger as he attempted to rub against Nadine's leg and Lili's leg.

"Go lay down," Lili sternly told Tigger.

Tigger only responded with a meow.

After leaving the apartment—while making sure that Tigger didn't get out as well—we made our way to Josh's Yukon.

Our conversation from the apartment to the Yukon was on a comparison between Nadine's parents and Lili and Laila's parents. Nadine, Lili and Laila did all the talking. Josh and I couldn't contribute to the conversation, so we just listened.

While listening to their conversation, I learned that Nadine's dad and his doppelganger were electricians. Nadine, Lili and Laila were even taught electrical work by their respective dads.

After getting to the Yukon, Josh of course took the driver's seat as Lili took the front passenger seat. Nadine, Laila and I got comfortable in the back seats.

After our seatbelts were fastened and Josh drove away, our conversation shifted on comparing movies and songs from our two realities, and this time, Josh and I were able to contribute to the conversation.

During the drive to the Tardis, our conversation remained on the topic of comparing shows and music from the two realities and so far we had only identified three shows that each had a different actor or actress in a certain role.

After arriving to _Star's Surplus's_ parking lot, Nadine pointed out the Tardis to Josh.

"That definitely looks like a camper trailer," Laila replied while staring at it.

"Trust me, it's not a camper trailer," Nadine told Laila.

Within a short time, Josh had parked next to the Tardis and we were gathered outside the Tardis's door. Nadine, Laila and I had our purses and Lili had her handbag.

Nadine knocked hard on the door as soon as we stepped up to it, and after waiting a few seconds for Trevor to answer, Nadine knocked again.

"Nadine, if the inside is as big as you and Sami had said… and if he is asleep, then he might not be able to hear you knock," Lili pointed out.

"Does anyone know how to pick a lock?" Laila asked.

"I know something about picking locks," Josh informed.

"Oh really?" Lili questioned in a curious tone. "Do I need to know about any dark past that you might have?"

Josh smirked before saying, "In my college fraternity, a few of us had picked up lock-picking skills, but we didn't use our skills to rob houses. We used it to play pranks on the other fraternities."

"Okay, well, use your lock-picking skills now and get us into the Tardis," I replied.

"I don't have any lock-picking tools, but I think I have something in the Yukon that might work," Josh replied.

"Okay, do it if you think you can," Nadine told him.

Josh nodded before returning to the Yukon and rummaging through a box that was in the very back.

Once Josh had found what he was looking for, he stepped up to the Tardis and made his attempt to unlock the door.

Within seconds after Josh began his attempt, he stopped trying and stuck his ear against the door.

"What's wrong?" Lili asked.

"I hear an alarm going off," Josh replied.

"That should get him to the door," Laila replied.

"Let's hope," I replied.

"Should I continue my attempt on picking the lock?" Josh asked as he backed up from the Tardis by a step.

"Let's give Trevor a moment to respond to the alarm," Nadine told him.

"All right," Josh replied.

We were all quiet for the two minutes that it took for Trevor to open the door.

"Lili and Sami, you two shouldn't have come back and you two certainly shouldn't have brought friends," Trevor quickly told Nadine and me.

"We had to come back," I quickly replied. "Your Tardis had brought us to an alternate reality." I gestured towards Lili. "In fact, meet the Lili who belongs to this reality." Lili slightly waved. I continued as I gestured towards Nadine. "And she is the one who was with me in the Tardis."

"My Tardis isn't equipped with the necessary devise to travel between realities," Trevor replied. "So the most likely scenario is that the Doctor had caused a time shift and since you and Lili were momentarily yanked from time earlier, that time shift had not yet caught up with yourselves."

"Or perhaps when the Doctor… or whoever sabotaged your Tardis, he or—possibly—she did something to rig your Tardis to able to travel to alternate realities without the need of the necessary device," I quickly countered.

"The only way that could happen is by… ooh," Trevor said before I saw a flash of sudden awareness within his expression.

Without saying another word Trevor hurried back into the Tardis. I quickly followed and the others followed me.

To Be Continued.


	3. The Discovery Part 3

The Discovery Part 3

"Wow!" Laila uttered as she gazed over the Tardis's control room. "Nadine, you and Sami weren't kidding about the inside of this."

Trevor went past the control console by about four feet and pulled up a floor access panel.

Once the wires and circuitry were exposed, Trevor kneeled down and looked into the hole.

"Very clever, Doctor; very clever indeed," Trevor replied as he continued to look.

"What did the Doctor do?" I asked as I moved over to the control console.

Trevor looked at me before saying, "The Doctor fashioned a crude device that would cause me to shift reality each time I attempted to enter the time-stream, and the device he used is what is burning out my wires. If I would have ended up in a reality that didn't sell what I needed to repair my Tardis, I would have been stranded."

"That might have been his plan," Josh suggested.

"Yes, I believe that was his plan as well," Trevor began as he stood upright. "But now that I know what is burning out my circuitry, I now know that I'll need to replace my wires with thicker wires, so this crude device stops burning out my circuitry."

"You're not going to remove the device, since you now know about it?" Laila asked.

"I can't remove it until I stumble upon one of the twenty-four waypoint realities," Trevor replied. An expression as if Nadine had wanted to say something came across her face. "And once I'm in a waypoint reality I'll be able to figure out where I need to go from there, and install the actual device I need to get back home."

"What is a waypoint reality?" Nadine asked once she found her chance to do so.

"For you to understand what a waypoint reality is, Lili, first I'll need to briefly tell you things about me and my planet," Trevor replied.

"Okay, tell me," Nadine said. She then gestured towards Lili. "Oh, and to minimized the confusion between me and the other Lili, you can call me Nadine. Nadine is our middle name. Oh, and the others are Lili's twin sister Laila and Lili's friend Josh."

"Lili and I are fraternal twins; not identical twins," Laila added.

Trevor nodded with a slight grin before taking a breath and saying, "Okay, well, I should start by telling everyone that my people and I are time-lords. However, we have not always been time-lords. In fact, we became time-lords sixty years after Jillishugrulsrost—a Gallifreyan scientist—and hundreds… possibly thousands of his other reality doubles had each activated an experimental device that would pull untapped energy from the core of their respective planets—which by the way, for the three people I just met, my home planet is named Gallifrey." Lili, Laila and Josh responded with a nod and/or a slight grin. "Anyway, each of those experimental devices didn't pull from the center of their respective planets as expected; it pulled from the other realities instead.

"Gallifrey, in every reality, was pulled from its respective reality and began merging with other realities. Death and destruction came quickly, and for Gallifrey in thousands of realities, it was absolute. By the time that our scientists were able to stop the merge, Gallifrey had only remained in existence in one hundred realities, and in those one hundred realities, only the population of twenty-four of them recovered."

"And those twenty-four realities are the waypoint realities," Nadine assumed aloud.

"Correct," Trevor replied.

"Couldn't you go back in time before the device was activated and save Gallifrey in every reality?" Lili asked.

"The activation of that device had become a fixed point in time and a fix point in time cannot be altered without causing a major time paradox," Trevor began. "In fact, that device had led to the invention that allowed us to cross over into other realities, and then that invention had led to two things—the invention to a device that allows time to be manipulated and the discovery of the Untempered Schism, and before anyone asks, the Untempered Schism is an opening in the space/time continuum. The leaders of the time-lords would like everyone to believe that the Untempered Schism is a natural phenomenon, but there is evidence that it was formed when our world snapped back into our own reality.

"However, whether the Untempered Schism is a natural phenomenon or a byproduct of a past experiment gone awry, time-lord academy was established because of it. In fact, the academy was built around it, and every child on Gallifrey begins his or her education at the time-lord academy. For a cadet to continue his or her education at the academy, he or she has to look into the Untempered Schism once he or she turns eight."

"What happens when they look into it?" Laila asked.

"They see the past, the present and every possible future from the worst horrid moment to the most joyous moment throughout the universe," Trevor replied. "The experience permanently links the cadet to the past, present and possible futures, and it is very painful to endure. The ones who are not inspired by the experience either go mad or run away and hide."

"Were you inspired by the experience?" Laila quickly asked.

"I was inspired." Trevor replied with a slight grin. "Anyway, the time-manipulator—the device that was invented to manipulate time—was tested on an exploding star by suspending time around it while it was in the act of becoming a black hole. Soon after that, our scientists discovered the potential energy within that collapsing star as it was frozen in one moment in time. So instead of allowing that star to finish out its life cycle and become a black hole, our scientists decided to harness that potential energy. Then the energy that was harnessed from the collapsing star combined with the knowledge of the time-manipulator led to the creation of the Tardis, and the creation of the Tardis, along with the construction of the time-lord academy that I previously mentioned, was when we became time-lords."

"So going back in time and stopping… that one scientist would have prevented all of what you had told us from happening, and without the Tardis, your people couldn't go back in time to stop that scientist," I commented.

"As I said, going back in time to stop Jillishugrulsrost would cause a major time paradox," Trevor replied. He then gestured towards the exposed circuitry. "Anyway, getting back to the topic of this crude device, I will leave it in until I reach a waypoint reality."

"Until you, Sami and I reach a waypoint reality," Nadine corrected.

"Excuse me?" Trevor requested.

"Sami and I don't belong to this reality," Nadine reminded him. "And we would like to get back to our own reality."

Trevor pursed his lips for a moment before saying, "That might not be possible."

"Why couldn't it be possible?" Nadine and I asked.

"Every reality vibrates on its own frequency and if I had the equipment, which I don't, I could measure your frequency right now and know exactly which reality you two had originated from," Trevor began. "However, when a person is out of his or her original reality for more than one Earth year then that person's frequency will become out of tune with his or her original reality, which means that, if you two come with me and it takes more than a year for us to find a waypoint reality, you will no longer vibrate at the same frequency as your original reality."

"Okay, well, one year is not a short amount of time," Nadine pointed out.

"What you say is true, Nadine, but finding a waypoint reality could take ten years or longer," Trevor informed. "After all, we are looking for one of twenty-four realities out of billions of realities, and more realities are forming each day."

"If more realities are forming each day, then couldn't there be more waypoint realities that you are not aware of?" Laila asked.

"Gallifreyans became time-lords in every waypoint reality, and when we became time-lords, waypoint realities had stopped branching out and forming new realities," Trevor replied.

"Okay, well, regardless that there are only twenty-four waypoint realities out there among billions of realities, I'm coming with you," Nadine told Trevor.

"I'm coming with you too," I quickly added.

"We want to get back home," Nadine also added.

Trevor pursed his lips and before he could respond, Lili asked, "Trevor, how do new realities form?"

"I was wondering the same thing," Josh commented.

"First off, you should be aware that as long as I'm in your reality, your reality will no longer branch out and form new realities," Trevor began. "However, new realities are created when a person is presented with two or more equally desirable and life altering choices. For instance, Lili, you are offered your dream career... I'm not from this world, so I don't know what a person might consider to be his or her dream career..."

"Doctor, lawyer, movie star," Laila commented.

"Whichever your dream career is, and if you choose to accept it, it will mean that you will have to end a romantic relationship with a person who you love deeply and move to another part of the world," Trevor continued after the brief interruption. "So choosing between taking the career offer—a career that you longed for, for your entire adult life—and staying with the person you love deeply would cause a reality to branch out and form two realities."

"But since you are in this reality one of those two branches doesn't get formed," Lili commented.

"Correct. The most likely one of the two will form," Trevor replied. "Oh, and after a time-lord does leave a reality that isn't his or her own reality, he or she leaves behind a radiation signature. This radiation signature is completely harmless, and it will fade over time, but the Gallifreyan scientists believe that as long as the radiation signature is present within your reality, it will prevent your reality from branching out and forming two or more realities."

"But the scientists don't know for sure that a time-lord's radiation signature will prevent a reality from branching out?" Laila questioned.

"Proving or disproving that theory is impossible for time-lords when time-lords can't be present to observe what does happen," Trevor replied.

"Okay, sure," Laila playfully replied. "It makes sense when you put it like that."

Trevor grinned before gesturing towards Nadine and me. "Anyway, as for you two, Nadine and Sami. If I allow you two to join me, you will be joining me as crewmembers and not as passengers."

"I'm okay with that," Nadine quickly replied.

"I'm fine with that too," I replied.

"Good," Trevor replied. "And since you two will be my crewmembers, I should know what your career skills are."

"We are nurses," Nadine and I said in cadence.

"Nurses," Trevor echoed in a thoughtful tone. "Your skill as nurses could be useful to me." He faced Lili. "Did you become a nurse as well, Lili?"

"No, I'm a veterinarian," Lili replied.

"I'm not familiar with the word _veterinarian_," Trevor said.

"I'm an animal doctor," Lili replied. "And so is Laila."

"Lili and Nadine certainly took different paths in their respective realities," Josh commented. "Trevor, is that common for doppelgangers in different realities to take different paths?"

"_Doppelganger_ is another word I'm not familiar with," Trevor replied.

"Earlier you had used the word _doubles_ when you could have used the word _doppelgangers_," Nadine explained. "Doppelgangers are what Lili and I are."

Trevor gave an understanding nod before saying, "To answer your question, Josh, there are realities out there that are nearly identical to yours and realities out there that are nowhere identical to yours, and billions more between the two extremes."

"That's good to know," Josh replied.

"I'm curious to know about my doppelganger," I commented. "Or if I even have a doppelganger in this reality."

"I could tell if you have a doppelganger in this reality and where she's at," Trevor informed.

"How?" I quickly asked.

"My job is to find criminals," Trevor began. "So I do have the equipment to locate people. All I need is a sample of a person's DNA."

"So you can find my doppelganger if you had a sample of my DNA?" I questioned.

"Exactly," Trevor replied. "Do you want me to find her for you?"

"Okay, yes," I replied. "I would like to know where she's at or if she even exists."

"Okay," Trevor replied before taking the few steps to his control console.

Trevor pulled open a door to a small storage compartment at the control console and pulled out an empty syringe.

Trevor indicated on the syringe that would equal to two milliliters and told me, "I'll need about this much of your blood."

"Okay," I replied while taking the syringe.

"It would be easier if I took your blood," Nadine told me.

I nodded before handing Nadine the syringe.

I put my purse down on the floor, and as I went to take off my coat, Trevor began pressing buttons on the control console—buttons that were nowhere near the button that Nadine had accidently pressed a few hours ago.

After Trevor had pressed about three buttons, a rectangular hard plastic rod that was about five inches long, three inches wide and one inch thick slid out from the console as if it was a DVD reader; however, on the topside of the rectangular rod was a recess that was about the size of a tablespoon.

Once my coat was off, Nadine drew two milliliters of my blood and then handed the syringe to Trevor.

Once Trevor had the syringe he squeezed my blood out into the recess of the rod and then pushed the rod into the closed position.

I put my coat back on and as I was picking up my purse, Trevor asked me, "Is Sami your full and actual name or is that what people call you?"

"Sami is what people call me," I replied as I was putting my purse over my shoulder. "But my full name is Samantha Nicole Stewart."

"And you are how old?" Trevor asked.

"Twenty-five," I replied. "But I will be twenty-six in about five months."

Trevor nodded before pressing a couple of buttons, followed by a small access panel on top of the control console opening and a microphone-looking device extending out. He then pressed and held a button and spoke into the device.

"New file. Earth woman; age, approximately twenty-five Earth years; full name, Samantha Nicole Stewart; Familiar name, Sami. Link the blood sample that is currently in the reader to Sami. Generate three potential depictions of Sami and display the most likely depiction as a holographic model. Initiate."

On the word _initiate_ a section of the control console lit up and went to work. Trevor had also turned loose of the button and backed up a half of a step.

We were all quiet for several seconds... possibly a minute before a ghostly image began to materialize next to us.

I took a step away from the image before demanding to know, "Is that a ghost?"

"It's not a ghost," Trevor assured me. "The computer had analyzed your DNA and is now creating the first of three holographic models on how you would most likely look."

"Why?" I quickly asked. "You already know how I look."

"Yes, I know what you look like, but your doppelganger's features could vary slightly," Trevor informed. "So the holographic models that I'm going to show you are possible variations of your doppelgangers, and the first of the holographic models is the most likely image of them."

"Okay," I said skeptically.

We were all quiet and staring at the holographic model as it was materializing in the nude next to us. The model also had short hair and was taller than me by about two inches.

"Does the holographic model have to be in the nude?" I quickly asked once I saw it taking form.

"It doesn't; sorry," Trevor said before pressing the button and speaking into the microphone. "Add trousers, a casual shirt and long hair to the model. Initiate."

The computer began adding clothes and increasing the hair length to the holographic model just before Trevor could release the button.

A short time later, once the first model had completely materialized, Laila told me, "Sami, that hologram isn't your exact duplicate, but she does favor you."

"I do see the resemblance," I replied. "And I also see that the hologram is about two inches taller than me as well. Should I be taller than what I am?"

"Not necessarily," Trevor replied. "The computer will depict your potential height and not your actual height. Also factors outside your DNA will influence your height and looks and the computer doesn't include those factors." Trevor then pressed the button and spoke into the microphone again. "Next depiction. Initiate."

The first holographic model didn't vanish, but quickly morphed within seconds into the next likely appearance of my doppelganger and although the second holographic model wasn't an exact match either, it still resembled me.

Trevor again pressed the button and spoke into the microphone, "Next depiction. Initiate."

The holographic model again morphed within seconds into the third and final likely appearance of my doppelganger; however, this time, the holographic model had barely favored me.

"Okay, none of those holographic models had looked exactly like me," I told Trevor.

"True, but if I was looking for you and I didn't know what you had looked like, you do look enough like the first two models for you to become a person of interest," Trevor told me. He then pressed the button and spoke into the microphone again. "Map out Sami's coordinates and the coordinates to other DNA matches with twenty percent accuracy. Initiate."

The holographic model disappeared and was quickly replaced by a holographic map that showed parts of Massachusetts from Boston to Manchester.

Two red dots appeared in the Boston area; one green dot and five blue dots appeared in the Salem area and one green dot and three blue dots appeared in Manchester area.

"What are those dots?" I quickly asked.

"One of the red dots is you and the other one is your doppelganger," Trevor began. "The two green dots would be either your doppelganger's parents or your doppelganger's full siblings, and the blue dots would be your doppelganger's half siblings, your grandparents, your parents' full siblings and your full siblings' children."

"Those would be my doppelganger's biological relatives, right?" I quickly asked.

"They would," Trevor replied in an uncertain tone.

"Okay, well, I'm adopted," I replied. "So I have no clue on who my biological relatives are or where they might be."

"Here is your chance, Sami, to find out who your biological parents are," Nadine told me.

"Trevor, how long do we have before you, Nadine and I leave this reality?" I quickly asked.

"If I work on repairing and modifying the Tardis alone it would take several days before we could leave, but I'm not planning on working on the Tardis alone," Trevor replied.

"You're planning on Nadine and me helping you," I assumed aloud.

"You two have agreed to be my crewmembers," Trevor reminded me.

"Yes, but can you give me the time I need to find out who my biological parents are?" I asked.

Before Trevor could reply, Lili quickly said, "I'm not working this Saturday and Sunday, so I can help with the Tardis. That way Sami can go meet her biological family and her absence here won't leave you shorthanded."

"I'm not working this Saturday and Sunday either and I'm also willing to help," Laila added.

"You can add me to the list of helpers as well," Josh replied.

"I appreciate all of the volunteers, and I was already about to tell Sami _yes_, that she can have the time she needs to go meet her relatives," Trevor replied.

"Well, technically it would be my doppelganger's relatives," I corrected. "Anyway, thank you, Trevor."

Trevor nodded before saying, "Meanwhile, since it is in the middle of the night and—correct me if I'm wrong—most Earth people sleep at night, we should get some sleep as well before we start on those repairs and modifications."

"_Yes_, I definitely need some sleep before I help you with that," Lili replied.

"All of you can go back to your respective homes and come back in a few hours or if all of you would like, I can assign everyone crew quarters until the repairs and modifications are done," Trevor told us. "And of course Sami and Nadine will need crew quarters regardless."

"Lili and I have a cat that shouldn't be left alone too long," Laila began before gesturing towards Lili. "So she and I should come back."

"And I'm their ride," Josh added.

"Trevor, you can assign me my quarters now," I told him.

"And you can assign me my quarters now as well," Nadine said.

"We'll see you guys in a few hours," Lili told us.

"Goodnight," Laila said.

We all echoed _goodnight_ before Lili, Laila and Josh headed for the exit. As they were leaving, Nadine and I followed Trevor to the spiral stairs.

Trevor descended the stairs to the next level; however, the stairs had continued beyond that.

As we came off the stairs we entered a short hallway that was closed off by three doors. One door was straight ahead by a few steps from the stairs, a second door was to our right by two to three steps from the stairs and a third door was to our left by two to three steps from the stairs.

On the wall next to each door was a small wall panel that was slightly below my eyelevel and each wall panel had three rows of three unmarked buttons.

"Earlier design Tardises are designed to operate with six people, but this particular Tardis is designed to operate with one person or as many as six people," Trever began before gesturing towards the three doors. "And these are the default programmed crew quarters…"

"_Default programmed crew quarters_?" I quickly asked before he could continue. "What does that mean?"

"The inside of my ship can change its shape as well as the outside, and what you see on the inside is the default layout," Trevor replied before gesturing towards the three doors again. "Anyway, as you can see, there are three rooms. Each room is basically the same. They each have the same dimensions. They each have two single beds that can fold up into the wall when they—they being the beds—are not needed. Each room has storage compartments to hold additional clothing and equipment, and each room has a personal hygiene facility where you can bathe and relieve yourself..."

"Here on Earth, we call a personal hygiene facility a _bathroom_," I informed.

"Or a _restroom_ if it's a public facility," Nadine added.

"That's good to know if I'm out of the Tardis and need to use a... a _restroom_," Trevor replied before gesturing towards the door on the right from the stairs. "Anyway, this is my room, and I'll let you two decide on which of the two remaining rooms that you want."

"It doesn't matter to me which room I have," I replied.

"I'm not choosy either," Nadine said before gesturing towards the door on the left from the stairs. "And since door number one is unavailable, I'll take what is behind door number two."

I slightly grinned before gesturing towards the door that was straight ahead from the stairs and saying, "And that leaves me with what is behind door number three."

"You two do realize that the doors are not numbered?" Trevor asked us.

"Yes, we're aware of that fact," Nadine was the first to say and in an amused tone.

Nadine and I each had an amused grin on our faces, and it didn't take Trevor long to figure out why.

"Ah," Trevor commented. "The door numbering has something to do with a culture reference."

"It does, and since you will be on Earth until we can find a waypoint reality, you might want to learn our culture references," Nadine told him.

"You're probably right," Trevor replied before gesturing towards the room that Nadine had chosen and moving towards it. "Anyway, there is no code to get into the two rooms. Just press the top left button like so." Trevor pressed the button and the door slid into the wall from right to left. "There is an option to make a door open with a code if either of you prefer your privacy."

"As long as you don't barge in unannounced, Trevor, when I might be in the nude, I won't need a code for the door," I told him.

"What she said goes for me as well," Nadine told Trevor.

"I will respect both of your privacies," Trevor told us before stepping into the room. "Anyway, let me show you how to lower the bed from the wall and access the storage compartments."

The room we entered was completely bare; however, after Trevor tugged on the walls at certain points, the room became filled with a single bed, a dresser, a wardrobe cabinet, a small table and two chairs. He then showed us the bathroom.

Once Trevor was certain that Nadine and I knew what we needed to know, he went to make sure that the Tardis was in fact secure and I went to my room.

Trevor was planning to go to bed once he knew that the Tardis was all locked up. He was also planning to wake Nadine and me up once he had gotten at least four hours of sleep. So to prepare myself for a nap instead of a full night sleep, I prepared one of the twin beds and pulled out the dresser. I then used the bathroom.

Once I was done in the bathroom, I took everything off except for my panties and my shirt. My coat, my boots, my purse, the clothes that I wasn't wearing and my jewelry were then placed on top of the dresser.

Sleep didn't come easy after climbing into bed and lying down. I couldn't stop thinking about today's events.

After tossing and turning and unable to sleep for about thirty minutes, the thought of doing a relaxation exercise came to me.

When I was fifteen, Aunt Kate—Mom's baby sister—had taught me a relaxation exercise, but the last time I had used it was in high school, the night before I took my SAT test.

I had two worries that were keeping me awake that night. My first worry was if I was adequately prepared for the test and my second worry was if I could remember the correct answers even though I had studied my ass off. Days later, when everyone's test scores came back, my worries were squashed like a bug. Not only did I pass my SATs, I had the fifth highest score of my class.

As I lay in bed, I concentrated on remembering what Aunt Kate had taught me and then I put what she had taught me into action.

Within a short time, unattached thoughts and random visions appeared just before everything went black.

I didn't know how long the blackness had lasted before I found myself wandering the mostly empty halls of Boston General Hospital while searching for Carrie—my supervising nurse.

As I finally spotted Carrie, after a long time of looking for her, a weird sound shrieked, stopped and then shrieked again.

When that sound shrieked for a third time, I shot up into a sitting position and vigorously looked around to regain my bearings.

I was in my quarters on board the Tardis and that shrieking sound came and went every few seconds.

I quickly got out of bed and pulled on my pants and then rushed to leave my room.

Trevor was in the hall and standing next to his door when I left my room, and before anything could be said to one another Nadine's door slid open.

"What is this god awful noise?" I asked as Nadine was joining us in the hall.

"It's the alarm to wake up by and it's scientifically proven to wake people up," Trevor replied as he pressed a button on the wall panel next to his door.

Once the alarm was off, I told Trevor, "I don't need a scientifically proven alarm to wake up by."

"Sami and I aren't heavy sleepers," Nadine informed.

"So can you change the sound that the alarm makes," I continued.

"Or we can wake ourselves up by our own alarm clocks," Nadine added.

"Do you two have your own alarm clocks?" Trevor questioned.

"Our cellphones have an alarm clock feature," Nadine informed. "So we can use our phones to wake ourselves up."

"Don't Earth devices have to be recharged so often?" Trevor asked.

"They do," Nadine replied.

"Okay, well, my Tardis doesn't have electrical outlets for any devices…" Trevor informed.

Trevor was about to say something else when I asked, "Since we have to rewire the Tardis, can we add electrical outlets?"

"I was about to tell you that the voltage output to the Tardis is much higher than any electrical outlets found on Earth," Trevor told me. "So even if the Tardis had electrical outlets, they wouldn't be comparable to your Earth devices."

"I know a little about electrical work," Nadine informed. "So I might be able to fashion a voltage converter."

"I do have the option to change the alarm clock's sound to something less annoying for you two and it would be a lot simpler than fashioning a voltage converter," Trevor told Nadine and me.

"Nadine, let's let Trevor change the sound for now," I urged. "They still make wind-up alarm clocks… or they do in our reality. So we could go out and buy a couple of those at a later date if we have to."

"Fine," Nadine replied.

I gestured towards my quarters while saying, "Anyway, I'm going to use the bathroom and get fully dressed."

"Meet me in the control room sooner than later you two," Trevor told Nadine and me.

"Of course," I replied before turning and walking back towards my quarters.

"Give me a couple of minutes and I'll be up," I heard Nadine telling Trevor as I entered my quarters.

Within a short time, I had used the bathroom; put my bra, my boots and my jewelry back on.

I had glanced at my watch, which read 8:45 A.M., when I was putting it on. Then, while leaving only my coat and my purse on my dresser, I left my quarters.

As I was coming off the stairs and was about to enter the control room, I slowed my step. Trevor had several floor plates pulled up, and there were five different colors of spools of heavy-duty wire and several other electronic components setting about.

Nadine was already in the control room and as I was joining her and Trevor, I asked, "How long have you been up, Trevor?"

"Long enough to go out and buy heavier wire and exposed the wire that I need replacing," Trevor replied. "Anyway, let me show you and Nadine what I want you two to do."

"Okay," I replied.

"Show us," Nadine replied at the same time I spoke.

Trevor took the time to show Nadine and me what he wanted us to do, which was to replace a specific colored wire with another specific colored wire that was a lot thicker.

Once Nadine and I knew what Trevor wanted us to do we went to work.

To Be Continued


	4. The Discovery Part 4

The Discovery Part 4

After swapping out thin wires for thicker wires for about two hours, a series of hard knocks was heard from the front door.

Trevor was the one to answer the door and within a short time, Lili, Laila and Josh joined us in the control room.

Lili, Laila and Josh were wearing blue jeans, a pullover shirt, their coats and tennis shoes. Also Lili had switched from carrying a handbag to carrying a long strap purse. And of course, Laila had her purse with her.

"We would've been here sooner, but straightening out my stolen car situation didn't go very smoothly," Lili replied as we gathered.

"How did you handle it?" Nadine asked.

"I told the police that I took the car as a joke; although, they didn't see the humor in that," Laila replied.

"Luckily, Laila and I were able to convince the police not to charge her with anything," Lili added.

"That's good," Nadine said.

"Anyway, Josh and I both brought our vehicles," Lili said. "So, Sami, if you need a ride to go find out who your parents are, I can drive you."

I looked towards Trevor just before he stepped up to the control console and pulled open a door to another small storage compartment.

As he unplugged and pulled out a smartphone-looking object, he told me, "Before you leave, Sami, you will need this to find your doppelganger and her relatives."

"What is that?" I asked. "And I thought you had no electrical outlets."

"What I disconnected from my control console is a DNA tracker that can detect a person and the person's relatives for about thirty miles," Trevor began. "Oh, and the DNA tracker can also track animals, insects, birds and sea life as well. In fact, as long as I have a DNA sample on file to whatever it is I'm looking for, I can track it. Anyway, I pulled it from an outlet that only DNA trackers can utilize, and since it was originally plugged into my control console, your DNA is already stored in the DNA tracker. So now, I'll set it for you, so you can track your doppelganger and her relatives."

As Trevor went to adjust the DNA tracker I told him, "Cool."

"Is the temperature inside the Tardis uncomfortable for you?" Trevor asked as he continued to set the device.

"The temperature is fine," I replied, and I was confused by his question. "Why do you ask?"

"Because you told me that something was cool," Trevor replied.

I grinned as I explained, "We Earthlings will say _cool_ to express something that we like or agree with. Like, I might say to you, 'I think it's _cool_ that you are from another planet.'"

"Interesting," Trevor replied as he stopped adjusting the DNA tracker. "So what would you say if the room temperature did feel cool to you?"

"I might say something like, 'hey, it's a bit chilly in here. Can you turn the thermostat up a little?'" I replied.

"Good to know," Trevor said before indicating to the DNA tracker. "Anyway, stand next to me, so I can show you how to use this."

I nodded before stepping up to Trevor and looking at the DNA tracker.

"The DNA tracker can be set in five-mile increments from scanning only five miles in every direction to scanning thirty miles in every direction, and scanning thirty miles in every direction is the tracker's maximum," Trevor began. "Anyway, setting it to scan only five miles is the most accurate, so you will want to start with the five-mile scan range first. If the person doesn't fall within that scan range, change the setting to the ten-mile scan range like so." He then showed me how to change the settings. "And if the person still doesn't fall within that scan range, change it to the fifteen-mile scan range, and so on until the person falls within the scan or until the tracker is at its maximum distance." He returned the setting to the five-mile scan range. "Anyway, it's again set on the five-mile scan range and it is showing me two separate red dots. And since the tracker is right next to you, I know that the dot in the center is you and the other dot is your doppelganger." He then gestured in a northeastern direction… or at least I was thinking that he was gesturing in a northeastern direction. If I was outside the Tardis, I would know for sure. "And your doppelganger is about two to three miles in that direction."

"Got it," I told him.

"Are you sure?" Trevor asked me.

"I'm sure," I replied, and I was certain that I did have it.

"Then answer me this," Trevor began as if to quiz me. "You centered the dot that is your doppelganger, but you never cross paths with her… or anyone else as far as that matters. So where is she? Where's your doppelganger?"

I gave Trevor a confused look as Laila said, "She's on a different floor; perhaps below Sami or perhaps above her."

Trevor grinned before gesturing towards Laila and saying, "What she said. And you can figure out which by pointing the DNA tracker either towards the ceiling or towards the floor."

"That's good to know," I commented.

"Anyway, here's the DNA tracker," Trevor said while holding it out for me to take.

As I took the tracker, I told him, "I'll try not to break it."

"DNA trackers are built to withstand extreme abuse and beatings," Trevor began. "So even though it's possible to break one, it's highly unlikely that you can."

Laila chuckled before saying, "For some people on Earth, saying that something can't be easily broken can be seen as a challenge."

"Yes, well, I wasn't challenging anyone to break it," Trevor replied.

"I will be careful with the device regardless if it is hard to break or not," I announced.

Trevor nodded before saying, "I'll see you when you get back."

"I'm not gone just yet." When Trevor gave me a curious look, I told him, "I need to grab my coat and purse from my quarters."

Once Trevor acknowledged me with a nod and a grin, I moved towards the spiral stairs.

It didn't take long for me to grab my coat and purse, and after returning to the control room, Lili and I exchanged _see you later_ with everyone.

Lili and I then left the Tardis and got into her Prius.

When Lili started the engine and the radio began to play, I glanced at the station and slightly chuckled.

"What?" Lili asked me before putting the car into drive and driving away.

"You and Nadine listen to the same radio station," I pointed out.

"Nadine has good taste in music," Lili jokingly commented.

"Yes, well, as I told Nadine, that's open for debate," I told her.

"You don't like Pop music?" Lili asked.

"It's not that I dislike the latest songs in Pop music; it's that I like Country classic and old Rock-N-Roll better," I replied.

"I don't know any stations that play Country classic or old Rock-N-Roll," Lili told me.

"I know a couple of AM stations that play Country classic and old Rock-N-Roll, but I have no problems with listening to your station," I told her.

"Alright," Lily replied in a skeptical tone. "So, what TV shows and movies do you like?"

My and Lili's conversation remained on TV shows and movies as we moved towards my doppelganger, and after getting less than a mile from her, our conversation ended as we focused on when to make our next right.

We were approaching a signal light, and I was splitting my focus on the DNA tracker and comparing where we were to my doppelganger.

"We're getting close," I told Lili. "She should be just past the light and on the right."

"Sami, a nice size cemetery is just past the light and on the right," Lili informed. "In fact, it's where my mom's parents are buried."

I briefly made disjointed syllable sounds before deciding on what to say and saying, "O-okay. Well, I guess this DNA tracker tracks corpses as well as live people. And regardless that she's dead, keep going. I want to know when she died."

"Okay," Lili replied.

Lili and I were quiet, and within a short time, Lili was turning right into the cemetery.

There were a lot of winds and turns in the cemetery and after making a right and then a left three different times, Lili and I spotted my doppelganger while standing next to a headstone. The headstone was located about a hundred feet from the black one-lane road.

"She's not dead," I uttered in a relieved tone.

"I'll pull over behind that car and let you out," Lili replied.

"Thanks," I replied as Lili was pulling over behind a blue Chevy Cobalt.

There was a red Jeep Liberty several car lengths in front of the Cobalt.

I took off my seatbelt and after Lili came to a complete stop, I got out and walked towards my doppelganger.

My doppelganger's long dark brown hair was about two inches longer than my hair and my hair had reached the small of my back. What I could see, she wore blue jeans, a white winter coat and gray tennis shoes, and also like me, she carried a long strapped purse that crossed her back and chest from her left shoulder to her right hip. Her back was to me, so I couldn't see the blouse or the shirt that she was wearing.

Once I was less than twenty feet from my doppelganger I heard her talking to the headstone, but I couldn't make out what she was saying.

As I continued towards her, the sound of a young child's cry was heard from somewhere behind me. I was about to turn to look, but didn't when I saw that my doppelganger was turning around.

My doppelganger did a double-take when she saw me, followed by an expression of surprise coming across her face.

"Oh my god," she uttered loud enough for me to hear her clearly. As I was stepping up to her she continued to say, "You're the spitting image of me."

"Yes, we are in fact, doppelgangers," I replied.

Beneath her white coat, she wore a red pullover shirt that had somewhat of a low-cut neck line.

"I say," she replied in a wholeheartedly agreeing tone. "Were you adopted? Because I was, and I'm willing to bet that you and I are identical twins. What is your name?"

"_Yes_, I was adopted. _No_, we're not twins, and my name is Samantha Stewart, but most people call me Sami."

The sound of the child's cry was slowly fading away, as if the child was moving away.

"Nice to meet you, Sami. My name is Claudia Greenfield," she began. "And we look too much alike for us not to be identical twins."

"Claudia, have you heard of the multiverse theory?" I quickly asked.

"Of course," Claudia replied. "It's where... Wait. Are you about to tell me that you are me and you are from another reality?"

I grinned slightly before saying, "Obviously I'm not you, Claudia, but I am your doppelganger from an alternate reality."

"Okay," Claudia began in a skeptical tone. "For argument sake, let's say that you are telling me the truth. How did you get here and why are you here?"

"I'm going to answer why I'm here first, and the answer to that is, I'm here—in this reality—by accident," I replied. "As to how I got here, you might find it difficult to believe."

"I'm actually finding you being from an alternate reality difficult to believe, but I'm going to keep an open mind," Claudia told me. "So tell me. How did you get here?"

I pursed my lips before saying, "Last night on _Star's Surplus's_ parking lot—and in my reality—I, and a friend of mine, followed a man into a space ship that was disguised as a long camper trailer. My friend's name is Nadine and the only reason why she and I followed him into his ship was because I was returning electrical components that he had recently purchased and had accidently dropped outside his ship..."

"So you are telling me that a space alien came to our planet to shop?" Claudia skeptically surmised in the form of a question.

"Not exactly," I replied. "The space alien, who coincidently looks like us, came to Earth to apprehend a fugitive known as the Doctor, and the space alien who I met and the Doctor are both from the planet Gallifrey..."

As the minutes slowly passed, and in as much detail as I could, I told Claudia about the Doctor, about the Tardis he had stolen, about Trevor, about how the doctor had sabotaged Trevor's Tardis and about my and Nadine's night and early morning from when we first entered Trevor's Tardis to Lili driving me here.

Claudia listened to what I had to say, and when I was done, she replied, "You're right. I do find that difficult to believe."

"And I honestly don't blame you for being skeptical," I assured Claudia. "If it wasn't for the fact that I was the one to enter the Tardis, I would find what I told you difficult to believe as well."

Claudia pursed her lips before saying, "I want to see the Tardis. I want to see it for myself that it's bigger on the inside than it is on the outside."

"Okay, sure," I replied. "Trevor may yell at me for taking you to the Tardis, but he'll get over it... hopefully."

Claudia made an acknowledging facial gesture before requesting, "Will you leave me alone for a moment so I can pay my respects to Clifford before you take me to the Tardis?"

"Before I take you to the Tardis, you might want to know why I came looking for you," I told her.

Claudia's eyes slightly lit up while saying, "Yes, I would like to know why you came looking for me. And also I would like to know how you found me."

"You had already told me the answer to this, but I had tracked you down to find out if you were adopted as I was," I told her. "And since you are adopted, I would like to know if you had located your biological parents."

"Pff, I don't know where to begin to look for them," Claudia told me. "I wish I did."

I grinned before saying, "Your wish is my command."

"Wait, you know who our biological parents are?" Claudia quickly asked.

"I don't, but I can find them in the same way I had found you," I told her.

Claudia slightly grinned before asking, "And how did you find me?"

"Trevor lent me his tracking device that can track down anyone within thirty miles as long as he has a DNA sample of the person he needs to track," I informed.

"And Trevor used your DNA so you could track me," Claudia concluded.

"Yep, and the DNA tracker is set to track familial DNA matches as well, which means I can locate your immediate biological relatives as long as they are within thirty miles from us," I added.

"Have you done a search on those familial DNA matches yet?" Claudia quickly asked.

"Last night Trevor had done a search while using the Tardis's computer and that search located you here in Boston and familial DNA matches in Salem and in Manchester," I informed.

"In Salem and in Manchester, huh," Claudia echoed. "I've been to Salem once, but not to look for my biological parents."

"Here's your chance to go again, but this time look for your biological relatives," I told her.

Claudia pursed her lips for a moment before asking, "Didn't you track them so you can meet them?"

"I track them to find out who they are, and I can find out who they are through you," I replied. "After all, they are your biological relatives, not mine. So if anyone should meet them in this reality, it should be you."

Claudia thought for a moment before saying, "I have an idea for us both to meet them."

"If you're thinking about us going there as twins..." I was only able to get out.

"No-no," Claudia quickly said. "I'm not suggesting that we go there as twins. I know a private investigator who has impressive surveillance equipment, and I'm certain that I can borrow a small hidden camera and a laptop computer. Once I get those items, I'll go meet my biological relatives, and you can watch from the car."

I grinned while saying, "That sounds like a plan."

"But before we put this plan into motion, can you give me a moment alone so I can pay my respects to Clifford?" Claudia requested as she gestured towards the headstone.

"Of course," I replied before glancing at the headstone. The name on the headstone was _Clifford R. Mills_, and as quick as I saw the name, I gestured towards the street. "I'll be at the car with Lili."

"And Lili is Nadine's doppelganger from this reality?" Claudia asked as if to quiz herself.

"Correct," I replied. "Anyway, I'll see you shortly."

Claudia acknowledged me with a nod before I could turn and walk away, and leaving her to mourn over a friend or a family member.

After walking back to the Prius and stepping up to the driver's side, Lili rolled down her window and asked, "So, how did it go?"

"It went well," I replied. "Her name is Claudia, and I think she's about ninety percent convinced that I'm telling her the truth about me being her doppelganger from another reality; although she wants to see the inside of the Tardis."

"Yes, well, I was one hundred percent convinced last night that you and Nadine had told the truth and I still wanted to see the inside of the Tardis," Lili replied.

"True, but since Claudia and I were adopted, she's not totally convinced that we are not identical twins."

"Yes, I can see why she would think that you two were twins," Lili replied. "So, are we going back to the Tardis from here?"

"She wants to go to a friend's house and get a couple of things, and then I believe that we are going to Salem," I replied.

"Are you planning on going there with her in her car?" Lili asked.

"That was never discussed," I replied.

"She's on her way over here," Lili told me while gesturing towards Claudia.

Lili and I were quiet during the time that it took for Claudia to join us, and as she stepped up, I introduced them to each other—even though it wasn't really necessary.

"Nice to meet you," Claudia and Lili told each other.

"So how are we going to do this?" Lili continued. "Are all three of us going?"

"We can all go together," Claudia replied. "But before we go, I do want to get a couple of things from… from a friend of mine, and I should go there alone."

"That's fine," I replied. "I'm getting hungry anyway. Lili, what about you? Are you getting hungry?"

"I had a late breakfast," Lili replied. "But I can take you to get something to eat. Where do you want to go?"

"I might as well make it simple and close to the Tardis," I replied. "I'll get something from _Piggly Barbeque."_

"I'll meet you two at _Piggly Barbeque _after I talk with my friend," Claudia told me and Lili.

"Alright," Lili and I replied.

"I'll see you in a little bit," I added before I moved towards the passenger's seat.

Claudia moved towards the Chevy Cobalt.

Once Claudia and I were in our respective cars, Lili and Claudia drove away.

My and Lili's conversation during our drive to the slightly crowded _Piggly Barbeque_ was casual and it remained casual after I ordered my lunch (barbeque ribs, fries and a large ice tea). Lili didn't buy any food, but she did order a large ice tea as well.

There were only two available tables to sit at among twelve tables, and Lili and I took the closest one.

Before taking our seats, we put our drinks down. It was also slightly warm in the room, so after I hung my purse on the back of the chair—a chair that faced the door—I hung my coat on the back of the chair as well.

Lili hung her purse and coat on the back of her chair also, and her chair faced away from the door.

After Lili and I made ourselves comfortable at the table, it took about fifteen minutes for me to get my meal, and by that time, my ice tea was gone. So I ordered another one.

My and Lili's casual conversation continued as I ate, and as I was picking clean the final rib bone with my teeth, Claudia—while now wearing a soft cap—stepped in.

The few customers that I could see without turning around and looking, glanced at me after seeing Claudia.

As Claudia was stepping up to my and Lili's table, she said, "I got everything we need, plus the use of a van."

As I was noticing the Boston Red Sox pin pinned to the cap, Lili was asking, "Do we need a van?"

"The van is a surveillance van," Claudia replied; although, I didn't really hear her when she spoke. But I was able to read her lips. She took off the cap and pointed to the pin. "The camera is right here. So, Sami, while I wear the hat and meet with... with whoever, you will be out of sight in the back of the van and seeing everything I do."

"Since you two will be going there in a van, I guess, I'm not really needed for this adventure," Lili commented.

"You're needed or another person is needed anyway," I quickly replied.

"I don't mind going, but why do you need a third person?" Lili asked.

"One person needs to drive and a second person needs to ride shotgun and navigate while using the DNA tracker," I replied. "And I shouldn't navigate or drive otherwise someone could see Claudia and me together and think that we are twins. And whoever gave birth to Claudia might know that she didn't give birth to twins."

"Sami, I actually could drive and follow the tracker," Claudia told me. "You just need to show me how to use the tracker."

"Using the tracker and driving would be too much like texting and driving, and I have seen more than my share of accident victims brought into the emergency room because they were texting and driving," I replied.

"You work in a hospital?" Claudia quickly asked me in a curious tone.

"I am an E.R. nurse," I informed. "And no offence to your driving skills, but I want someone who isn't driving to navigate."

"I'll go and navigate," Lili quickly volunteered.

"Good," I replied.

"Okay, well, I'm ready when you two are," Claudia informed.

"Let me use the restroom first and I'll be set to leave," I requested.

"Alright," Claudia replied.

I got up and went to the restroom. I was only in there long enough to pee and wash my hands, and after rejoining Lili and Claudia, I grabbed my coat and purse.

Claudia had never taken off her coat or had placed her purse down, and Lili had put on her coat and grabbed her purse while I was in the restroom. So once my coat was on and my purse was hanging off my shoulder, we left the restaurant.

Lili's Prius wasn't all that far from the Tardis, so she left it parked where it was and climbed into the surveillance van with Claudia and me.

The van was disguised as an electrician van, and the passenger's side sliding door and the back double doors were windowless. In fact, the only windows the van had were the windshield, the window to the driver's door and the window to the front passenger's door.

A heavy curtain separated the back area from the driver's seat and the front passenger's seat.

A shelf-like table was mounted along the passenger's side wall between the opening to the sliding door and the back doors. Two floor-mounted swivel-chairs with backs and seatbelts sat in front of the table. A computer and a monitor were secured on the table with metal band straps. A mouse, a keyboard and earphones were neatly secured on the table with Velcro straps.

Equipment items that I was unfamiliar with were strapped along the driver's side wall.

Claudia took the driver's seat, Lili took the front passenger's seat and I took the closest back seat to the front seats.

After the three of us were comfortable in the van, Claudia started the van and drove off.

Before reaching the edge of the parking lot, Claudia glanced back at me and asked, "Sami, how long have you been a nurse?"

"Since July 1st of last year," I simply replied. "What about you? Do you have a job?"

"I am a computer programmer for Knights Software, Incorporated," Claudia replied as she came to a stop at the edge of the parking lot.

"Computer programmer?" I echoed curiously. Claudia accelerated and joined the early afternoon Saturday traffic. "Wow, I can't imagine myself doing that."

Claudia chuckled before saying, "Truthfully, I can't imagine myself as a nurse. Are you a nurse too, Lili?"

"No, I'm a veterinarian," Lili began. "Nadine—my doppelganger—is a nurse though."

"Okay, well, you and Nadine both went into a type of medical field even though you treat animals and she treats humans," Claudia replied. "So you and she didn't stray too far from a certain path."

"I can see why you say that," Lili replied.

"Most likely, I have never heard of them, Claudia, but who are your adopted parents?" I asked.

"Their names are Theodore and Rosalee Greenfield," Claudia replied.

"Rosalee Greenfield," I echoed to myself as I tried to remember where I had heard that name before.

"But they actually go by Theo and Rosa," Claudia continued as I was trying to remember where I had heard the name. "Dad is a computer programmer like me and he also works for Knights Software, Incorporated. And Mom..."

"Your mom is a trigonometry teacher at Boston Community College, isn't she?" I rattled off as I remembered who Rosalee Greenfield was. I was also remembering that Rosalee Greenfield was about 5' 4" as well. So most likely Claudia never felt like a runt growing up.

"She is," Claudia replied in an impressed tone. "Have you met her before?"

"In my reality, I had her as a teacher during my first semester of college," I shared.

"Was she your favorite teacher?" Lili playfully asked.

"I did like her as a teacher, but my favorite teacher was actually Mr. Simon Richardson," I replied. "He was my sophomore high school science teacher."

"Sami, who are your adopted parents?" Claudia asked.

"They are Benjamin and Mary Stewart," I replied. "Oh, and Josh—Lili's boyfriend—knows them, so from him, I learned that in this reality they adopted an Asian boy."

"What do they do for a living?" Claudia asked.

"I don't know about this reality, but in my reality, my dad is a hotel manager at Marriott and my mom is a teller for Bank of America," I replied.

Our conversation during the drive from Boston to Salem was mostly me learning about Claudia's life and Claudia learning about my life. Lili contributed where she could, but for the most part, she just sat back and listened.

As Claudia and I got to know each other, I learned that Claudia and I went to different schools, experienced different things and were friends with different people.

We were definitely two different people in spite of being from two different realities; however, we did have the same likes in books, movies, TV shows and music. Our favorite genre in books, movies and TV shows was science fiction, and our favorite music genre was Country classic.

As Claudia was sharing her life story with me and Lili, she began talking about Clifford R. Mills. Clifford was one of Boston's firemen and her fiancé, and today was supposed to have been their wedding day; however, three months ago, Clifford was killed in a three-alarm arson fire.

Also the man who she had borrowed the van and surveillance equipment from was Adam Mills—Clifford's dad. Adam Mills was a former homicide detective who quit the force and became a private detective.

To Be Continued.


	5. The Discovery Part 5

The Discovery Part 5

Our drive from Boston to Salem took slightly less than an hour, and once in Salem, Lili picked up the DNA tracker, examined the results and told Claudia where she needed to go.

Claudia nodded for a response.

"Let's see where your relatives are in Manchester," Lili announced as she changed the settings on the DNA tracker.

The tracker had been set to scan in every direction for five miles, but Lili changed it to scan in every direction for fifteen miles.

"Good news, the second green dot and all of those blue dots are still in the Manchester area," Lili announced.

"And what exactly does that mean?" Claudia asked.

"The tracking device uses red dots, green dots and blue dots," Lili began before I could say anything. "And the two red dots represent you and Sami. The green dots would either represent your parents or your full siblings, and the blue dots represent your half siblings, your grandparents, your parents' full siblings and your full siblings' children."

"That's a handy tracking device," Claudia replied. "I bet cops would love to get their hands on that."

"But they never will," I quickly replied. "Our government can't get their hands on it. It doesn't even belong to this world... in any reality."

"Sami, I wasn't suggesting that our government take a look at it," Claudia quickly told me.

"Good," I told her. "I believe you."

"Claudia, you'll need to make a right turn at the next light," Lili announced as she looked at the tracking device.

"Okay," Claudia replied as she prepared herself to make the turn.

We were quiet, except for Lili as she told Claudia where to turn and in which direction during the few minutes that it took for us to narrow down the location to Claudia's immediate relative—a parent most likely—to a one-story house that had an attached garage on the house's right.

Claudia parked the van on the street in front of the house and then moved to the back of the van and turned on the surveillance equipment.

Once the surveillance equipment was up and running and I was showed what to do, Claudia and Lili left the van.

My eyes were focused on the monitor as Claudia quietly walked at a normal pace to the door. Lili was at her side, but I couldn't see her and she didn't speak.

Claudia pressed the doorbell when she reached it and then took a step back.

Within seconds, I heard Lili say over the speaker, "Your mom, dad or full sibling is coming this way."

The view of the monitor shifted from the door to Lili as Lili held the tracking device.

"I have my doubts that I will have a full sibling," Claudia replied.

"I doubt it too, but there is always that possibility," Lili told her.

"Mmm," I heard. I think it came from Claudia.

Within seconds the door opened and an attractive woman with long dark brown hair stepped into the doorway. From looking at her on the monitor, she looked to be in her late thirties or early forties, and she was taller than me and Claudia. I couldn't tell by how much though.

The woman gave Claudia a puzzled look for a moment before shaking off what was puzzling her and asking, "Hi, how can I help you two?"

Claudia slightly hesitated before saying, "Yes, hi. I'm Claudia and this is my friend Lili. She's with me for moral support."

"If you are here to sell me something, I can tell you right now that I'm not interested," the woman told them.

"No-no. We're not here to sell you anything," Claudia quickly replied. "On August 6th, 1997, you had given birth to a girl, and that girl was put up for adoption. I'm that girl."

The woman pursed her lips for a moment, as if to collect her thoughts, before saying, "_Yes_, I had given birth to a girl on August 6th, 1997 and _yes_, I did put her up for adoption. And if you are in fact that girl, you had wasted your time tracking me down. I didn't want anything to do with you then and I don't want anything to do with you now."

"I have a mom and a family, so I'm not looking for either of those," Claudia replied in a tone that I usually get when someone had pissed me off and I didn't want to retaliate. "But I do have questions for you, and then I'll be on my merry way; never to bother you again.'"

The woman pursed her lips again before saying, "Fine. Let's go inside though."

The view on the monitor bobbed slightly as if Claudia had nodded. Once the view became steady again, the woman ushered Claudia into the house. Claudia entered first, and I was assuming that Lili and the woman followed behind Claudia.

As Claudia entered the living room by the front door, she looked towards a woman who had long red hair as she entered the living room from another room. In the woman's left hand, she was carrying a can of cola, and in her right hand, she was carrying a plate that had a sandwich and some chips.

Also the redheaded woman looked to be in her mid-twenties and although I couldn't really tell by looking at the redheaded woman through the monitor, but she looked to be about the same height as me and Claudia.

"Hi, I'm Skye," the redheaded woman replied.

I heard Claudia introducing herself followed by Lili introducing herself.

"So how do you two know, Marina?" Skye asked.

"We actually don't know each other," Claudia replied as the view on the monitor shifted from Skye to Marina—or at least I was now assuming that the first woman's name was Marina.

Lili was standing not far from Marina and was partially in view.

"Skye, over twenty-five years ago, I gave birth to a girl and then gave that girl up for adoption," Marina began. "Claudia is claiming to be that girl; although, if she is that girl, I don't know how she found me."

"And if you are not that girl, I will know," Skye replied. The view on the monitor shifted from Marina to Skye, and Skye was putting her meal down on the coffee table. As Skye was standing upright, she continued to say, "I'm a human lie detector, and if you are lying about who you claim to be, you will have me, Bryan and my dad to deal with. We're protective of Marina."

"Skye, I can handle myself," Marina informed. The view on the monitor again shifted from Skye to Marina.

"I know you can," Skye replied. The view on the monitor once again shifted from Marina to Skye. "Anyway, Claudia, how did you learn about Marina?"

"I can tell you how I ended up here, but you and Marina would find my explanation too far-fetched to be believable," Claudia replied.

"Not only can I detect a lie, but I can also detect the truth, no matter how far-fetched it sounds," Skye claimed. "So tell me. How did you end up here?"

"Okay, sure. I'll tell you," Claudia said in a tone as if she was leaving out the words, _don't say I didn't warn you. _"I had used a space-alien DNA tracking device to track my strongest familial DNA match, and the tracking device led me to Marina."

An expression of awe came across Skye's face just before uttering, "Oh my God, Marina. Claudia is telling the truth."

"Skye, are you seriously telling me that she's not being facetious?" Marina quickly asked.

The view on the monitor had shifted from Skye to Marina and then shifted back again when Skye replied, "She might have made herself sound facetious, but she told the truth. Claudia, you have also came across another space-alien device. No, wait. It wasn't you." Skye took a short moment to think about it before gesturing and saying, "It was Lili and... and Sami who came across the space-alien device. Oh my God. Sami is from an alternate reality."

"You're a psychic," Claudia said.

I had uttered, "You're a psychic," as well, but since I was still in the van, no one was around to hear me speak.

"I'm a psychic," Skye told Claudia in an agreeing tone.

"Hold up," Marina uttered. The view on the monitor once again shifted from Skye to Marina and Marina had her hands up as if to stop traffic on either side of her. "I'm having difficulty keeping up with this conversation. Who is Sami?"

"Sami is my doppelganger and she's from an alternate reality," Claudia explained.

"Okay, I know about the multiverse theory, but I thought that the multiverse theory was only true in science fiction stories," Marina replied.

"I would have said the same thing about ninety minutes ago," Claudia replied. "But then I met Sami."

"Wait, Sami—your doppelganger from another reality—is in our reality?" Marina questioned.

"She is," Claudia replied. "She found me while using the space-alien's DNA tracking device."

"She's in your vehicle outside, and I'm getting the impression that she is using spy equipment to see and hear us," Skye said.

"Crap. Busted by a psychic," I said aloud.

"Sami, you might as well join us," Claudia continued as I was speaking.

I was totally unprepared for this and I basically came to a complete mental and physical halt. Then after a second or two of not moving or even thinking, my mind began to work again and I knew that my only viable option was to join them before Skye came looking for me.

I turned off the equipment as Marina was asking Claudia as to why I was spying on them.

Once the equipment was off, I grabbed my purse and left the van.

Getting to the front door from the van felt as if it took no time and forever at the same time, and once I reached the door, I rang the doorbell.

Within seconds, the door opened and Skye greeted me with, "You must be Sami."

"Yep. That's me, and you are Skye," I replied.

"I am," she replied. "Come in and join us."

I nodded before joining everyone in the living room. Lili was basically off to the side and keeping quiet.

"Claudia. Sami. Skye's psychic predictions and psychic feelings are rarely wrong," Marina began. "In fact, I don't know of a time when they were ever wrong. But regardless, I can't help to think that you two are in fact identical twins, and that you two had come here to con me."

"You gave me up for adoption in this world, and your doppelganger had given Sami up for adoption in her world," Claudia began before I could say anything. "She and I just want to know who our biological parents are and an explanation as to why we were given up for adoption—that's all. That's the only reason why we are here."

Marina thought for a moment before asking, "If you two are the same person, but from two parallel realities, then why aren't your names the same?"

"Sami and I maybe doppelgangers, but her life and my life took different paths the day we were born," Claudia quickly replied. "In fact, the couple who adopted me, isn't the same couple who adopted Sami in her reality. So I'm assuming that the person who named me in this reality isn't the same person who named Sami in her reality."

"I'm sorry, but I'm having a hard time believing that you two are not identical twins," Marina informed.

"Examine their fingerprints," Skye suggested. "By them being the same person, their fingerprints should be the same."

"Even though we're doppelgangers, we are still two different people," I supplied. "So my and Claudia's fingerprints still might be different as well."

"I don't know why, but there happens to be two unopen fingerprint ink pads on top of the refrigerator," Skye told me.

"Your Aunt Gail and I use fingerprint ink pad to fingerprint new kids as they join daycare," Marina informed.

"Okay, well, let's use one of them now and find out if Sami's fingerprints and Claudia's fingerprints are the same or not," Skye urged.

"Okay, sure, let's find out." Claudia said.

"Sure, let's do it," I added.

"I'll go get one of the pads," Skye said before walking away.

"I take it that you work at a daycare," Claudia told Marina as I glanced around the living room.

"Gail—my sister-in-law—and I co-own a daycare," Marina supplied as I began noticing photos that were hanging on the walls.

One of the photos was a family photo. Marina and Skye were in the photo—along with three others—and Marina and Skye looked the same in the photo as they do now. So the photo was taken very recently.

Also in that same family photo were a man who looked to be in his mid-forties, a man who looked to be in his late teens or early twenties and a boy who looked to be about fifteen or sixteen.

Next to the family photo was a photo of Marina and John Dorr—the man who died last night at the hospital... or at least he died in my reality.

I gestured towards the picture that had Marina and John Dorr in it and asked, "How do you know John Dorr?"

"He's my husband's best friend and the best man at my wedding," Marina informed. "He and I are also birthday buddies. We were both born on July 2nd, 1980, and that photo was taken on our birthday two years ago. How do you know him?"

"In my reality, I'm an ER nurse at Boston General Hospital," I began. Skye returned with something in her hand, but I didn't look to see if it was the fingerprint ink pad. "And around 9:10 last night, John Dorr was brought in with three stabbed wounds to his abdomen and was pronounced dead at 9:18. And again, that was in my reality; not yours."

"It still could have happened in this reality," Marina replied before she moved towards the coffee table. "Excuse me."

I glanced towards the coffee table and saw Skye's untouched food, the TV remote, a book and a smartphone.

Marina reached for the phone, but before I could see her grab it, my attention was pulled to Skye as she questioned, "Are you ready, Sami and Claudia, to be fingerprinted?"

"I'm ready," I replied as I glanced at the ink pad and the sheet of paper that she held.

"Yeah, I'm ready," Claudia replied when I did.

"And I hope you have good soap, so I can wash my fingers off afterwards," I replied.

"Most likely, Sami, you will just need to compare only one fingerprint from each of you," Lili suggested. "If the one fingerprint is the same for both of you, then most likely they'll all be the same."

"Sounds logical," Skye replied as she moved towards the coffee table. "We'll use both of you guys' right thumbprint."

Marina had stepped away from us with her phone, and within a minute, she began talking on the phone; however, she was talking too quiet for me to make out what she was saying.

Skye had opened the ink pad and laid it and the sheet of paper down on the coffee table.

Claudia went first by leaning over and sticking her right thumb into the ink pad and then making a thumbprint impression on the paper.

Once Claudia was done, I stuck my right thumb into the ink pad and placed my right thumbprint impression on the paper below hers.

After standing upright and stepping back from the coffee table, Skye picked up the sheet of paper and began examining my and Claudia's thumbprints.

"Where is your bathroom, so I can wash the ink off my thumb?" I asked.

Skye pointed out the bathroom for me and then continued examining our thumbprints.

I went to the bathroom and cleaned the ink off from my thumb as best as I could, and when I returned, Claudia went to wash her thumb.

When Claudia left the room, Marina returned and said, "Sami, John Dorr is a parole officer. Yesterday, he had sent one of his parolees back to prison for a parole violation, and last night, he and his wife Jessica were assaulted by the parolee's husband. The husband did have a knife; however, neither John nor Jessica was injured."

"He has a wife in this reality," I commented as I remembered that John Door had a tan line on his left ring finger where a ring used to be. "Does he wear a wedding ring?"

"Of course he wears one," Marina replied.

"Okay, well, in my reality, he wasn't wearing any rings, but he did have a tan line on his left ring finger," I informed.

"Six months ago, Jessica did leave John and file for a divorce, but they reconciled and got back together before that divorce went through," Marina shared.

"So John Dorr and his wife must not have reconciled in my reality, and he was home alone when he was attacked," I guessed.

"I don't know about your reality, but in this reality, Jessica is a karate instructor who has a black belt in three forms of karate. So…" Marina got out before stopping herself. She then suddenly shook her head as if to wake herself up from a strange dream and uttered. "Hold up. Why am I entertaining this? You had to have prior knowledge of the attack on John and Jessica and you are using it as part of your con. The multiverse isn't real."

"Marina, Sami's right thumbprint is an identical match to Claudia's right thumbprint," Skye quickly informed. Claudia was returning when Skye was speaking. "So they are either the same person from two different realities, or all fingerprints are not as unique as the experts claim."

Marina stared at me for a moment while pursing her lips before asking, "Sami, if you are in fact from an alternate reality, then how did you get here?"

I took a breath and repeated my story about the Doctor, about the Tardis he had stolen, about Trevor, about how the doctor had sabotaged Trevor's Tardis and about my and Nadine's night and early morning from when we first entered Trevor's Tardis to Claudia, Lili and me coming here.

Once I was done telling Marina and Skye my story, I continued to say, "Claudia and I both want to know who you are, and the only reason why I remained in the van was because you are Claudia's biological mom; not mine. However, the answers to Claudia's questions about you will be the same answers to my questions."

"And the answer you are looking for is why I gave Claudia up for adoption," Marina commented.

"Yes," Claudia and I replied.

"When I was sixteen, and on Halloween night, I had gone to a party that I had no business going to," Marina began. "I drank, and I got wasted very fast—faster than I should have. So I am very certain that my drink was spiked with the date rape drug. And after passing out on someone's bed, I was raped that night by Richie Smolder. As Richie was having his way with me, the cops showed up to shut down the party. Richie must not have heard the cops though, because when they went from room to room to boot everyone out, they found Richie on top of me.

"While I was still passed out, I was taken to the hospital, and I was in the hospital overnight. When I woke up the next morning, my parents were in the room. They told me what happened. I didn't even know Richie Smolder, and truthfully I still don't. In fact, all I know about him is that he raped me on Halloween night in 1996. He got caught and went to jail that same night, and then, after being out on bail for less than a day, he hung himself..."

"So Richie Smolder is dead?" I quickly asked.

"He is," Marina replied.

"Is he buried in Manchester?" I quickly asked.

"I had been told that he was from Boston and Boston—as far as I know—is where he is buried," Marina replied.

"Lili, can I see the DNA tracker," I requested as I faced her.

"Certainly," Lili replied before handing me the DNA tracker.

Once I had the DNA tracker I adjusted it to scan in every direction for fifteen miles, and like with Lili earlier, a green dot was still showing in the Manchester area.

"Marina, according to this DNA tracker, Claudia has a parent or a full sibling eleven miles from here and in that direction," I told her while pointing in the direction.

"Okay, well Claudia certainly doesn't have any full siblings," Marina replied.

"Like me, Claudia just has two half-brothers," Skye informed.

Claudia grinned before asking, "What are their names?"

"Bryan and Matthew," Skye replied. "Bryan is twenty-one and is at work, and Matt had just turned sixteen. So dad had taken Matt out to teach him how to drive."

"How old are you?" Claudia asked Skye.

"I will be twenty-five next week," Skye replied.

"Can we get back to that DNA tracking device," Marina requested while gesturing towards it. "It should not be indicating that you have another parent or full sibling. Richie Smolder is dead and as far as I know, he's buried in a Boston cemetery."

"Richie Smolder might not be the guy who had gotten you pregnant back in 1996," Lili suggested.

"He was the one who raped me," Marina quickly replied.

"He was the only one who had gotten caught raping you," Lili corrected. "Another guy—Claudia's biological dad—had to have raped you the same night as well."

"Oh my god," Marina uttered as the realization dawned on her. "I wanted so badly to forget about that day, that I haven't even considered that I was raped by more than one guy. And since Richie had killed himself, the rape kit that was done on me was never tested."

"Marina, was that why you gave me up for adoption?" Claudia asked. "Because you had gotten pregnant from being raped?"

"Yes," Marina simply replied. "Knowing that you were conceived from me being raped, I was certain that I couldn't bring myself to love you. And I'm against abortions, so my only option was to give you up for adoption. Anyway, are you planning on following that green dot to its source?"

Claudia glanced at me and I nodded.

"We are," Claudia replied after a slight pause.

"I'm coming with you," Marina told Claudia as if it was a matter of fact. "I want to see this son-of-a-bitch who had gotten me pregnant twenty-six years ago."

An uncertain expression came across Claudia's face just before she said, "O-Okay. When do you want to leave?"

"We can leave now, and we can take my SUV," Marina said.

"Okay, sure. Let's do this," Claudia said.

"Let me use the bathroom and grab my purse and we can go," Marina replied.

As Marina walked away, Skye began inquiring about my life and Claudia's life and comparing them, and her inquiries ended when Marina returned with her purse.

Apparently Skye wasn't really hungry because before we left the house she took her food into the kitchen and did something with it instead of bringing it with her. My guess she put her food in the refrigerator.

After entering the garage from the front side of the garage, Lili, Claudia, Marina, Skye and I climbed into Marina's Toyota Land Cruiser, and of course Marina took the driver's seat. I took the front passenger seat with the DNA tracker while Lili, Claudia and Skye got into the back.

When Marina started the car, a Loretta Lynn song began to play from the CD player/radio. I glanced at the radio and saw that the song that was playing was from a CD.

I was about to tell Marina that I too liked Country music, but before I could, Skye's inquiries about my life and Claudia's life began again. However, soon after Marina joined the afternoon traffic while heading towards Manchester, Skye's inquiries shifted into a casual conversation.

During our conversation, Lili, Claudia and I learned that Marina's full name was Marina Ann O'Reilly, but her maiden name was Gillan. Skye's full name was actually Skylar Kaitlyn O'Reilly, and Marina's husband's name was Dallas Keith O'Reilly.

Lili, Claudia and I also learned that Dallas's first wife (Skye's mom) died from an allergy attacked from multiple bee stings when Skye was two years old.

Marina didn't have any allergies that she was aware of, and after hearing that she had no known allergy, I asked about any genetic health issues that might run in the family. However, the only thing she could tell me was that her granddad and his brother died in their early sixties from cancer.

Our conversation shifted from topic to topic and we had listened to two Country classic CDs throughout our trip. Just before reaching Manchester's city limits, Claudia, Lili and Skye each exchanged cellphone numbers; although, when Claudia said what her phone number was, she had to correct herself. Last Thursday, she had changed her service provider and she didn't keep her old number. Too many unsavory people and dope heads—her former high school friends. (Her words not mine.)—had her previous number and that was why she changed it.

After reaching Manchester's city limits, I looked at the scanner for the first time since leaving Salem and saw that there was a blue dot adjacent to the green dot. I then shared that fact with Claudia.

"What does a blue dot next to a green dot mean?" Skye quickly asked.

"Blue dots would be Claudia's half siblings, her grandparents, her parents' full siblings and her full siblings' children," I shared.

"So Bryan and Matthew would show up on that tracking device as blue dots?" Skye commented as a questioned.

"Correct," I replied.

Our conversation again turned casual; however, this time I was splitting my focus on the conversation and watching the DNA tracker. Once we were less than a mile away from Claudia's biological dad and another somewhat immediate relative, our casual conversation abruptly ended as I told Marina where she needed to make her turns and in which direction.

A couple of turns and a short time later, the tracker led us to a public spot on the beach. It was too cold to swim; however, there was one man and one woman sitting on lawn chairs and staring at the large number of boats that were scattered in the ocean.

Marina had come to a stop when I told her to stop, and after shifting my focus from the DNA scanner to the man and the woman on the lawn chairs, I told her, "According to the tracker, the man in the lawn chair is Claudia's biological dad and the woman is another one of Claudia's relatives."

"They are too far away for me to see who they are," Marina replied. "I'm parking and going over there."

It didn't take Marina long to find a parking spot, and once she had turned off the engine, Lili said, "Since this doesn't really concern me, I'll wait in the car."

"Actually, I would like for all of you to wait in the car," Marina said. "I would like to confront the man alone."

"He's not alone," Skye countered. "So you won't be confronting him alone."

"Skye, you know what I mean," Marina replied before she moved to open her door. "So all of you, wait here."

"Fine, I'll wait here," Skye replied before Marina could leave the Land Cruiser.

For Lili, Claudia, Skye and me, the several minutes that it took for Marina to returned to the Land Cruiser after leaving it was done in silence.

As Marina was retaking her seat, Skye told her, "You seemed to be in a better mood than me if I would have met my rapist."

"He punished himself over twenty-six years ago for what he had done to me, and what he did to himself is far worse than what I could ever do to him," Marina replied. "So I would love to hate him, but I can't."

"So you know him," I commented.

"I knew of him all those years ago," Marina corrected. "His name is Bryce Clary and the woman with him is his sister Julie. In high school, Bryce was a small guy… well, he's a small guy still, but back then, for a small guy, he was too cocky for his own good. He also had a big crush on me, but I honestly didn't want anything to do with him. My feelings towards him didn't stop him from trying though. In fact, that Halloween night—the night I had gotten pregnant with Claudia—he made a point of talking to me every chance he got. And I think he had even given me a drink in the hope of holding my focus for a while. But now I'm thinking that the drink he had handed me was drugged, and when I had passed out, he took advantage of me."

"You said that he punished himself," Claudia pointed out. "How did he do that?"

"That following February, he—without wearing a seatbelt—deliberately drove his truck into a wall," Marina began. "He made an excellent attempt to kill himself for—according to his note—destroying lives on Halloween night. No one knew what he meant, but I think I do now. Anyway, during his suicide attempt, he sustained a major blow to the head. He was in a coma for about a week and after he regained consciousness, the doctor diagnosed him as having severe mental impairment."

"So he is mentally challenge?" Claudia questioned.

"Yes," Marina replied. "Anyway, Claudia, if you would like to talk with him, here's your chance."

"Did you tell him and Julie about me?" Claudia quickly asked.

"The only thing I did when I walked over there was re-introduced myself to them," Marina replied. "However, by August 6th, 1997, everyone I knew in Salem had known that I had given birth and that I had given the baby up for adoption. And in spite of Bryce's mental condition, the expression on his face moments ago told me that he remembers me and what he had done to me. Anyway, Claudia, we'll wait here if you would like to talk with him."

Claudia considered her options for a moment before saying, "To be honest, I wouldn't know what to say to Bryce or to Julie. In fact, just knowing who they are is enough for me."

"Claudia, would you mind if I go talk with them in your behalf?" I asked.

"No, I don't mind," Claudia replied.

"Thanks," I replied as I opened the door. "I'll be back in a moment."

"Sami, wait," Claudia quickly told me. "So you won't be walking through sand in high-heals, we should swap shoes."

"Good idea," I replied before I went to take off my boots. "I'm going to leave my purse in the SUV as well."

"Okay. It will be safe," Marina told me.

* * *

To Be Continued.


	6. The Discovery Part 6

The Discovery Part 6

Since this is Claudia's world; not mine, I was going to introduce myself as Claudia. So as I moved away from the Land Cruiser, I reviewed everything I learned about her; such as what Boston neighborhood she had grown up in and what her middle name was. Claudia's middle name was Christine; however, I doubt they would ask me my middle name.

As I got closer, Bryce and Julie must have heard me approaching, and they both got up and turned towards me.

Marina was right about Bryce being a small man. In fact, I had my doubts that he was as tall as Marina, and Marina was about 5' 7".

Julie was also a short woman. She stood about 5' 2", and had shoulder-length brown hair.

When Julie shot me and then the parking area curious looks, I told them, "Hi. You two picked a lovely spot to view the ocean."

"It's the best spot," Bryce said in a childlike tone. "I like coming here and seeing the boats."

"And there are a lot of them out there," I replied while glancing at the boats. "Anyway, I'm Claudia Greenfield."

A slight grin crept across Julie's face just before she introduced herself as _Julie Berkeley _and her brother as _Bryce Clary_.

Julie was wearing a wedding ring, so I suspected that _Berkeley _was her married name.

"So how often do you two come here and watch the boats?" I asked.

"Today is the first day since October, but once the weather turns nice, we will most likely come here at least once a month," Julie replied.

"I like coming here and seeing the boats," Bryce again told me.

"Is watching the boats the only fun thing that you like to do, Bryce?" I asked.

"I like to paint and put puzzles together and play board games," Bryce replied.

"Have you ever painted the boats?" I asked.

"I don't go near the boats," Bryce replied. "I don't like the water."

As a puzzled expression came across my face, Julie told me, "My dad will buy old worn down wooden furniture and woodcrafts from yard sales and restore them. So when Bryce says that he likes to paint, he means that he likes to paint the furniture and the woodcrafts. He also gets it in his head that he has to paint the walls of the house about once a year, which he had to do two weeks ago."

"The colors on the walls were fading and looking dirty," Bryce replied for why he had to paint the walls.

"Yes, and you took care of that," Julie replied.

"Did you paint the walls all by yourself, Bryce?" I asked.

"Yes," Bryce replied. "Julie and Kent don't paint well."

"Bryce wants things done a certain way, so even if my husband Kent and I did help, he would only redo our work," Julie informed. "And truthfully, Bryce does a great job at painting the walls. So when it comes time for him to paint the walls, Kent and I just buy what he needs and then stay out of his way."

"So Bryce lives with you and your husband and not with your parents?" I asked. I quickly realized that what I had asked was a personal question. "And wow, I can't believe I asked that. What I asked is clearly none of my business."

"It's fine. I'll answer, and the answer is _yes_," Julie replied. "Bryce came to live with me and Kent twelve years ago, and he had painted my house twelve times since."

I grinned before asking, "Bryce, do you ever put together model cars or model planes and then paint them?"

"I paint them when Jared or Calvin puts them together," Bryce replied. "They haven't put them together for a long time though."

"Jared and Calvin are my grown sons," Julie began. "But before they got grown and had lived at home, they would build models so Bryce could paint them. Anyway, Claudia, do you live in the area?"

"I don't," I replied. "I'm from Boston, and I just came up to be adventurous and see what I can see." Julie nodded to what I had said. "Do you and Bryce live in the area?"

"We don't live far from here," Julie replied.

"Did you always live here in Manchester?" I asked. I again quickly realized that what I had asked was a personal question. "And I keep asking you questions that I shouldn't be."

"It's fine, Claudia," Julie said with a slight grin. "And the answer to that one is _no_. We used to live in Salem. I moved here twenty-five years ago with my husband—although at the time we were only dating. Then my dad's work went out of business a year later, and the first decent job he could find was here in Manchester. So he, my mom and Bryce moved here about fourteen months after I did. What about you? Have you always lived in Boston?"

"I have," I replied. I couldn't think of any more non-personal questions so I continued to say, "Anyway, Julie, I had invaded your space long enough..."

"Marina could wait a little longer, Claudia, if you would like to learn a little more about your dad," Julie told me.

"Okay, normally I don't run into psychics, but you are the second one I ran into today," I quickly replied.

"I'm not a psychic, Claudia," Julie replied with a slight grin.

"Then how do you know who I am?" I asked.

Julie turned towards her brother before saying, "Bryce. Claudia and I are going to have a private chat for a moment. I want you to stay here and watch the boats."

"Okay, Julie," Bryce replied.

"Follow me," Julie told me and I did. After getting out of earshot of Bryce, Julie continued to tell me, "I was at the Halloween party when Marina was raped. I didn't catch Bryce in the act of raping her, but I did catch him leaving the room once he was done. Two months later, when I saw that Marina was gaining weight I knew that she was pregnant; although, until I had lay eyes on you today, I didn't know if it was Bryce who had gotten her pregnant or if it was Richie Smolder who had. Richie Smolder had raped her too."

"Yes, I had been told about Richie Smolder," I replied. "But what is it about me that told you that Bryce is my biological dad?"

"The combination of two things," Julie began as she pulled out her smart phone from her back pocket. "And give me a second and I'll show you the first thing."

"Okay," I skeptically replied.

Julie clicked on an app; however, I couldn't see what app she had pressed.

After a few seconds of scrolling through one of her apps, she held out her phone for me to take and said, "Look."

I took the phone and was surprise to see a woman who looked enough liked me to be my twin. The woman in the picture was sitting down at a kitchen table with a baby in her arms. A girl who looked to be about three or four years old stood at the woman's side and cooing over the baby.

"Wow, she looks like me," I informed. "Who is she?"

"That would be Tammy Clary—your biological grandma. The baby in her arms is Bryce and the girl standing next to them is me," Julie informed. "So I knew who you were because you are a clone of your biological grandma, and you showed up minutes after Marina did. Now what I don't know is how you and Marina knew to track me and Bryce to the beach."

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," I replied as I held out her phone for her to take.

Julie pursed her lips while taking her phone back. As she was putting her phone back into her back pocket, she said, "You mentioned that you had met a psychic today. It was the psychic who told you where to find me and Bryce, wasn't it?"

I was happy to let her believe that, so I nodded and said, "_Yes_. It was."

"Since you haven't inquired about Bryce's mental state, I'm guessing that Marina had told you about what had happened to him," Julie again assumed.

"Yes. Marina had told me that he had attempted to kill himself by driving his truck into a wall," I said. "But instead of killing himself, he became mentally impaired. I can't imagine being so remorseful over something that would compel me to kill myself."

"Bryce wasn't remorseful back then... well not at first anyway," Julie said in a tone that told me that she had a guilty conscience over something.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"The day after the Halloween party, I let Bryce know that I saw him leaving the room where Marina was passed out in," Julie began. "He denied raping Marina, but I didn't believe him. Now I know that I was right not to have believed him. Anyway, when he denied raping Marina, I let him know what I thought of rapists, and I didn't hold back or stopped there. Since he didn't have a conscience, I decided to fill that role. So every chance I got and in front of Bryce, I would ask every woman's opinion about rapists while starting with our mom. I wanted him to admit and confess to what he had done. I was relentless and when February rolled around, I thought he was going to confess, but instead he attempted suicide." Tears rolled down her cheek. "I didn't want him dead or mentally impaired; I just wanted him to confess."

Without saying a word I went to console Julie by hugging her and letting her cry.

After several seconds, I felt her pulling back. So I released her and stepped back as well.

"You must think…"

I didn't allow her to finish as I said, "I think that you are a big sister who cares for your little brother. Bryce was the one who made the choice to rape Marina and to drive his truck into a wall instead of facing what he had done."

"It's kind of you to say that," Julie said with an appreciative grin.

"I say it because it's the truth," I quickly said. "You were only trying to get Bryce to take responsibility for what he had done."

Julie nodded with a grin before glancing towards the parking area and saying, "Marina is most likely wondering what is keeping you."

"Yeah," I replied. "I probably should get going."

"You are welcome to come back or to call me if you would like to talk some more," Julie told me. "I'll give you my cellphone number."

"I don't have anything to write down your number on," I informed.

"My purse is next to my chair," Julie said while gesturing towards her lawn chair. "I have a pen and something to write on in my purse."

"Okay, sure," I told her before following her back to where Bryce was sitting and watching the boats.

Julie sat down on her seat before grabbing her purse from the sand and picking through it. Within seconds, she took out a pen and an envelope that contained a gas bill and a return envelope. She removed the gas bill and the return envelope from the outer envelope and stuffed them back into her purse. After setting her purse back down next to her seat, she began to write on the outer envelope while using her upper leg as a surface to write on.

Once Julie was done writing she held out the envelope for me to take and said, "This is my address and cellphone number." As I was taking the envelope she continued to say, "I'm usually at home, and I don't mind if you come by without calling ahead. However, if you do come by without calling ahead and I happened not to be there... or here on the beach, I'm most likely out running errands."

"You don't work?" I asked. "And again that's a personal question that I don't expect you to answer."

"You're my niece, Claudia," Julie replied with a grin. "So I don't mind answering those types of questions, and _no_ I don't work. In fact, with Kent's annual income, I don't need to work."

"What does Kent do for work?" I asked. "If you don't mind me asking."

"He's a surgeon," Julie replied.

"Nice," I replied as I tried to remember if I knew of anyone by the name of Dr. Berkeley in my reality. "Does he have any doctor privileges in Boston? Not that I'm looking for a surgeon. I'm just wondering."

"I don't believe so," Julie replied with a grin.

"Okay, well, I guess I should get going," I replied before having a thought. "Oh, but before I do, I would like to know if there are any genetic health issues that might run in the family."

Julie thought for a moment before saying, "Well, your grandparents—Neal and Tammy Clary—are still alive and healthy for the most part. They do take medicine for arthritis, and your granddad Neal does have high blood pressure. So he's on medication for that. Oh, and they both wear glasses and their hearing isn't as good as it used to be. As far as your great-grandparents, your great-granddad Donald Clary died from lung cancer at the age of seventy. Your great-grandma Louise Clary died from a heart attack last year at the age of eighty-eight. Your great-granddad Michael Foster died from a heart attack as well at the age of eighty-one, and your great-grandma Carolyn Foster was killed in an auto accident when she was forty."

"So cancer and heart attacks would be the primary two health issues that I have to look out for as I get older," I replied.

"Cancer, heart attacks, hearing loss and bad eyes," Julie said.

I nodded before saying, "Since my biological ancestors have British, Irish and Scottish last names, I'm assuming that they are mostly from those three regions."

"Clary can also be a French last name and in our case it is," Julie replied. "Also Mathew and Carolyn Foster were Jewish. Your grandpa—my dad—had even converted to Judaism when he married your grandma, and Bryce and I were raised Jewish. So your ancestry make up from your biological paternal side would be French and Jewish."

"That's good to know," I replied. "Anyway, I can't think of any other questions to ask."

"If you think of any later, I'm just a phone call away," Julie replied.

I nodded before gesturing and saying, "Okay. Anyway, I should get going."

"It was nice meeting you, Claudia," Julie quickly told me.

"Yes, it was nice to meet you as well," I replied. "Bryce, it was nice meeting you."

"It was nice meeting you," Bryce echoed.

"Take care," I told Julie and Bryce with a wave.

"Take care," Julie and Bryce echoed before I could turn and walk away.

Moments ago I had the urge to call Julie, _Aunt Julie_, but she wasn't really my aunt. She was Claudia's aunt and Claudia might not want to open that door.

After getting back to the SUV and taking my seat, Claudia asked, "So, were you able to get the answers you wanted?"

"I was," I replied as I went to take off Claudia's tennis shoes. Marina started the SUV. "And I have even answered a question that Julie had for the past twenty-six years."

"What question was that?" Marina was the one to ask while backing out of her parking space.

"Before I answer that, Marina, I should tell you and Claudia that when Julie had laid eyes on me, she knew that Bryce is my biological dad," I informed. Marina put the shifter into drive and drove away. "Well, actually, I should say that she knew that Bryce is Claudia's biological dad, and she knew this because Claudia and I look a lot like Tammy Clary—Bryce and Julie's mom."

"That's who you and Claudia remind me of," Marina quickly replied. I handed Claudia back her shoes. As Claudia went to put on her tennis shoes, I went to put on my boots. "I knew you two look familiar to me, but I couldn't figure out why."

"Anyway, the question that Julie had for the past twenty-six years was—did Bryce rape you, Marina?" I informed. My left boot was on and I moved to put on my right boot. "She suspected that the answer was _yes_, but Bryce refused to admit the truth, and when I stepped up and she saw that I looked like her mom, she knew that she was right."

"So Julie knew that her brother had raped me and she did nothing," Marina quickly commented.

"She only suspected that he had raped you and she did do something," I informed.

"And what was that? What did she do?" Marina asked.

"Julie took on the role of his conscience and relentlessly haunted him to admit his guilt of raping you every chance she got," I began as I went to put on my seatbelt. "And she did this by soliciting women's opinions on rape when she and Bryce were around women. In fact, Julie believes that it was her haunting him that had caused him to attempt suicide. Although, she didn't want him to attempt suicide, she just wanted him to come forward and confess."

"If I'm remembering right, Julie and Bryce were as close as any brother and sister could be," Marina began. "So I could imagine the guilt that Julie feels for Bryce's condition.'

"She definitely blames herself for Bryce's condition," I replied.

"What else have you learned?" Claudia asked.

"I learned that Tammy Clary is Jewish and Bryce and Julie were raised Jewish," I replied. "Bryce and Julie's dad's name is Neal and his ancestry was French, but he had converted to Judaism when he married Tammy."

"That's interesting to know," Claudia replied. "Marina, what is your ancestry?"

"Scottish and English," Marina replied.

"That's good to know too," Claudia replied. "Sami, did you learn anything else?"

"Yes," I began. "Julie told me that your great-granddad Donald Clary died from lung cancer at the age of seventy. Your great-grandma Louise Clary died from a heart attack last year at the age of eighty-eight. Your great-granddad Michael Foster died from a heart attack as well at the age of eighty-one, and your great-grandma Carolyn Foster was killed in an auto accident when she was forty—and, wow, that's verbatim"

"You have that good of a memory where you can remember long sentences verbatim?" Skye was the one to ask.

"No, I really don't," I replied. "I do know that what I had said is what Julie had told me word for word, but I don't know why I remember that so well."

"Maybe you have a better memory than you thought," Lili suggested.

"I must have," I replied before shaking it off. I pulled out the paper with Julie's contact information on it as I continued to say, "Anyway, Claudia, Julie had given me her contact information and told me that I was welcome to stop by or call her any time I like. And of course she thought she was talking to you, so the contact information is for you." I held out the paper for Claudia to take.

Claudia took the paper before saying, "I don't know if I will call her, but thanks."

"That's up to you obviously, but she seems interested at getting to know you," I replied. "Oh and she thanks that you and Marina had located her at the beach by a tip from a psychic."

"You didn't say that I told you, did you?" Skye asked.

"No, I didn't mention you," I told Skye. "When she correctly identified me as being Bryce's daughter without me hinting to that fact, I told her that she was the second psychic I had met today. That was when she showed me a picture of her mom and told me about her suspicion."

"Marina, at the first fast-food restaurant you see, go there," Lili requested. "I need to use the restroom and I'm a bit thirsty."

"Okay," Marina replied. "I think I had passed one not far from here."

"And, Marina, can we please listen to the radio now?" Skye requested.

"Fine," Marina replied before clicking the button to switch from the CD player to the radio. The radio was set to a popular rock station.

Our music preference was one of the topics discussed while driving up here. Among the five of us, Marina, Claudia and I were the only three who could listen to Country classic all day, every day. Lili claimed that she could tolerate it if she had to, but Skye could only tolerate it for a short time before she needed to hear the music that she liked.

We were quiet during the ride to the nearest fast-food restaurant, and once Marina parked, we all hopped out and went inside.

All five of us had used the restroom, and then we bought drinks for our trip back to Salem.

After getting back on the road, our conversation was light and casual from the fast-food restaurant to Marina's house.

Dallas and Matt were passing a football back and forth just before Marina pulled into the driveway and parked.

As we were climbing out of the SUV, Dallas and Matt leisurely stepped up to us. I held the DNA tracker.

As we all gathered outside the SUV, Marina did the introductions between Dallas, Matt, Lili, Claudia and me and during the introductions she introduced me and Claudia as twins. Claudia and I both pursed our lips.

Once the introductions were over, Claudia announced that she needed to get the work van back to its owner sooner than later, so Lili, Claudia and I exchanged _goodbyes_ with them and climbed into the van.

Lili again got in the front as I got in the back, and after Claudia drove away, she announced, "I have something to confess. Adam didn't really give me a time for the van to be return. I just wanted to leave."

"That's fine," I replied. "I need to get back to the Tardis anyway."

"And I was ready to leave as well," Lili added.

Our conversation from Marina's house to Claudia parking next to the Tardis was light and casual.

After hopping out of the van, Lili attempted to open the Tardis door, but when she couldn't, she knocked hard. I carried the DNA tracker.

Once Trevor opened the door and saw Claudia standing next to me, he told me, "Sami, you and Nadine can't keep bringing your doppelgangers to the Tardis."

"I got the answers I was looking for, so I won't need to go out and look for my doppelgangers in the other realities," I replied before gesturing to who was who. "Anyway, Trevor, meet Claudia. Claudia, meet Trevor. Trevor, Claudia was also adopted and she isn't totally convinced that I'm her doppelganger from another reality and not her identical twin. So I brought her here to prove to her that I what I told her was true."

"Fine," Trevor replied before backing up and making room for us to enter. "Come in, Claudia."

Claudia entered before Lili and me, and we were about four steps in when Claudia stopped and looked around.

The floor plates that were pulled up earlier were closed and different ones were now open.

Nadine, Laila and Josh stopped what they were doing and moved closer to us.

"Wow," Claudia uttered. "Sami, you weren't lying about the Tardis being bigger on the inside."

"I wasn't," I replied with a grin. "Anyway, everyone, meet Claudia. Claudia meet Nadine, Laila and Josh."

"Nice to meet you," Claudia, Nadine, Laila and Josh each said in an uneven chorus.

"Sami, how did the search go of you finding your biological parents?" Nadine asked.

"Claudia and I found them," I replied before indicating to the DNA tracker. "In fact, this works great for finding people. Lili and I tracked Claudia to a cemetery, and at first I thought the DNA tracker was leading us to a tombstone, but Claudia was only there to visit a love one."

"The DNA tracker is adjusted to only track living people," Trevor informed.

"Can it be used to track someone who is deceased?" I asked.

"I would have to adjust the settings, but _yes_," Trevor replied before holding out his hand towards me. When I gave him a curious look, he continued to say, "Hand me the DNA tracker."

"Oh, right," I replied before handing over the DNA tracker. "Anyway, how are the repairs and the modifications to the Tardis coming along?"

"They're coming along nicely," Trevor replied as he moved towards the control console. "We got more done today than I expected that we would."

"That's good, and I'm back to help," I replied.

"I'm ready to help as well," Lili added.

"Show me what to do and I'll lend a hand," Claudia also added.

"Give me one second and I'll show you three what you can do," Trevor replied before opening the door to the storage compartment that held his DNA tracker.

During the time that it took for Trevor to put the DNA tracker up, Lili, Claudia and I took off our coats.

After the DNA tracker was back where it was kept and our coats and purses were placed somewhere out of the way, Trevor showed Lili, Claudia and me what to do.

Once Lili, Claudia and I went to work to replace thin wires for thick wires—as I was doing earlier—Nadine asked about my biological parents.

Claudia and I replied with everything we had learned about Marina and Bryce. Claudia—after Laila had asked—had even shared her life story with them.

By 6:30 P.M., everyone was hungry, and after a short discussion on what to eat, Nadine, Lili, Laila, Josh, Claudia and I voted for Chinese food. Of course Trevor was unfamiliar with Chinese food; however, he was open on trying it.

Lili and Josh had volunteered to go get the food and once they had returned with the food around 7:20 P.M., Trevor led us down the spiral stairs by two levels.

When I saw that there was yet another level below this level, I—while following Trevor to one of two closed doors—asked, "Trevor, how many levels does the Tardis has?"

"Currently my Tardis is set for only five levels," Trevor replied before pressing the button on the wall panel for the door to open. As the door slid open and revealing a dining room that had one long table and eight seats, he continued to say, "So there is only one more level below this one and one level above the main level."

As Nadine, Lili, Laila, Josh, Claudia and I followed Trevor into the dining room, I asked, "So what's on those two final levels?"

"And what's behind the second door on this level?" Nadine asked.

"The very top level are prisoner holding cells for when I apprehend someone and storage areas," Trevor began. "The very bottom level is where the power system for the Tardis is located and whoever goes down there and enters a containment room without following the safety protocols will be instantly vaporized."

"So no wandering around below this level," I replied. Lili and Josh moved to put the bags of food on the table. "Got it."

"Well, you can wander down there, but you won't be able to get through the door without entering the proper code, which I'm the only one who knows the code," Trevor replied. Lili and Josh pulled out the containers of food from the bags and began setting them on the table. "Anyway, Nadine, the second room on this level is the library. In there, you will find information about Gallifrey, the Time Lords and everyone or everything that the Time Lords have interacted with." Trevor gestured towards the food containers. "Anyway, let's eat."

Lili and Josh had bought fried rice, chicken wings, crab Rangoon, Pot Stickers, Egg Roll and a few other items, and once we were seated, we slowly began building our plates with what we wanted.

After getting what I wanted and swallowing my first bite, a thought occurred to me.

"Trevor, I have a question for you that most likely should've been asked last night," I told him.

Trevor quickly swallowed the bite that he had taken before asking, "What's your question?"

"After you, Nadine and I go to another reality, how will you know if we will be in a waypoint reality or not?" I asked. My question had quickly caused Laila to chuckle and I continued towards her. "What?"

"While you and Lili were out meeting Claudia, I had asked him that same question," Laila informed.

"And what was the answer?" I quickly asked.

"One method is to scan the galaxy for the radiation signatures that time-lords leave behind; however, great distance between me and the next time-lord would make this method unreliable," Trevor began. "So the best method is by directly communicating with my people on Gallifrey. No matter where I am or when, I could always communicate with my people. However, when my first attempt to 1963 had failed, I was no longer able to communicate with my people. Before all of you came along, I thought that something inside my communicator had burned out when my other circuitry had burned out. So I had planned to rebuild my communicator with the components that I bought from _Star's Surplus_. Then, Sami, last night when you had pointed out that we had shifted realities, it dawned on me that my communicator was still working. I just didn't have anyone to communicate with since Gallifrey wasn't there. Anyway, once we reach a waypoint reality, I will be able to communicate with Gallifrey again."

"Then hopefully after that, we can get home," Nadine added. I nodded with a grin before taking another bite. "Meanwhile, I really don't want to wear the same clothes every day. So, Trevor, if you don't mind, before we go anywhere once the repairs are done, I would like to go clothes shopping."

I quickly swallowed the bite that I took before holding up my hand and saying, "I second that."

"Sami, I can help you out," Claudia announced. "My grandma... my mom's mom, is always buying me clothes and shoes. So I actually have more clothes than I do closet space. In fact, my dad and Uncle Jack built me a wardrobe cabinet two years ago to put my clothes in, but I'm running out of space again to hang up my clothes. Anyway, Sami, I can give you some of my clothes."

"Okay, sure," I replied with a grin.

"Nadine. Laila and I don't really own too many change of clothes or I would give you some of mine," Lili told her.

Nadine grinned before saying, "That's fine. Does _Mercy_ thrift store exist in this reality?"

"I'm not familiar with that thrift store, but there is an _Angel's Hand-Me-Downs_ thrift store not far from here," Lili replied before saying where they are located.

"_Mercy _is located about that area as well, so _Mercy_ in my reality might be _Angel's Hand-Me-Downs_ in this reality," Nadine replied.

"That's always possible," Trevor replied.

"Trevor, before we leave this reality, I'm going to _Angel's Hand-Me-Downs_," Nadine informed. "You might want to come with me and get you some clothes as well."

"I have clothes," Trevor replied.

"And ten-to-one, I'm willing to bet that the clothes you have are similar to the clothes that you are wearing," Nadine began, "and the clothes that you are wearing make you look like you are from another planet."

"I am from another planet," Trevor pointed out.

"Yes, but the people on Earth don't know that and they don't really need to know that," Nadine replied.

"Yes, I see your point," Trevor replied.

Our conversation during our meal turned casual, and once we got our fill of food, we went back to work. Lili took what food that was left, which wasn't much, and put it in her car.

We worked on repairing and modifying the Tardis for a few hours longer before calling it a night at midnight, and once Lili, Laila, Josh and Claudia had left, Nadine, Trevor and I went to our respective quarters for the night.

It was 7:30 A.M. when Trevor woke Nadine and me up to start our day. It was a Sunday, and I had to think about what day it was as I was waking up.

After forcing myself out of bed, Nadine, Trevor and I ate breakfast in the dining room. The food we ate was part of Trevor's non-perishable food supplies, so it definitely came from Gallifrey, but in spite of where the food came from, Nadine and I both enjoyed our food.

Trevor started to tell us what we were eating, but Nadine and I both quickly stopped him. The food we were eating was edible and tasty and that was all Nadine and I cared about.

By 8:05 A.M., the three of us returned to the control room and continued making repairs and modifications to the Tardis.

Lili, Laila and Josh joined us around 10:00 A.M., and Claudia—with a box of clothes and shoes for me—joined us around 10:30 A.M.

All of us began to get hungry around noontime, but instead of breaking for lunch, we continued to work on making the repairs and modifications until we were completely finished around 1:15 P.M. However, there were bundles of wire left over and Trevor stored them away.

The seven of us then went to _Fisherman's Choice_ restaurant for lunch. Fisherman's Choice was also a mile from _Angel's Hand-Me-Downs_, and we all arrived to the restaurant in Josh's Yukon.

As the seven of us were finishing our meals, Laila told Nadine, "So. It won't be long now, Nadine, before you, Sami and Trevor will be leaving us. And this may sound weird for me to say, but I'm going to miss you like the second sister that Lili and I never had."

"It certainly has been interesting to have an identical twin as well as a fraternal twin these past two days," Lili added.

Nadine pleasantly grinned before telling Laila, "I will miss you and Lili as well."

"Everyone, we should get a move on," Trevor urged. "Nadine; Sami, the faster that we can find a waypoint reality the greater the chances that you two will remain in tune with your original reality."

"Well, I'm done eating," Nadine replied. "So I'm ready when you are, Trevor, to go to _Angel's Hand-Me-Downs._"

"What about the rest of you?" Trevor asked.

Lili, Laila, Josh, Claudia and I each announced that we were done, and once the food was paid for, we left. Josh had also left a ten-dollar bill on the table for our waitress to find.

After Josh drove to _Angel's Hand-Me-Downs _and parked, Nadine and Trevor went inside while the rest of us remain by the Yukon.

Our conversation as we stood around the Yukon had remained casual and it had shifted from topic to topic during the twenty minutes that it took for Nadine and Trevor to return from _Angel's Hand-Me-Downs _with their purchases.

We then got back into the Yukon and returned to the Tardis.

Trevor wanted to leave sooner than later, so after Josh had parked his Yukon next to the Tardis, Nadine, Trevor and I said our _goodbyes_ to Lili, Laila, Josh and Claudia; although they each remained near the Tardis as Nadine and I followed Trevor inside and closed the door. My guess was that they each wanted to watch the Tardis as it vanishes from sight.

Trevor carried his clothes and dropped them near the control console before taking his place at the controls.

After pressing a couple of buttons, he told me and Nadine, "Hopefully, this is going to be a much smoother ride than last time, but just in case, you both need to stand next to something that you can hold on to."

Nadine and I nodded before finding a stationary object to hold on to. When Trevor saw that we were good to go, he pressed the final button.


End file.
